On 14 June, a smart electricity meter was installed at the Edineț City Hall, a piece of equipment that allows remote data transmission and making energy consumption more efficient. It is the second state-of-the-art meter installed, after the first was installed in the Government building one day ago.

The Ministry of Energy launched, on 13 June 2023, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme in Moldova, a pilot programme for the installation of smart meters for electricity, a programme that is part of the energy sector digitalization plan.

Thus, in the next 12 months, meters will be installed for different categories of consumers, a representative sample at the level of the entire country, announced the Secretary of State from the Ministry of Energy, Cristina Pereteatcu.

Households will be selected according to the following criteria: geographic location, population/density, household size and level of energy vulnerability, socioeconomic status, infrastructure availability, etc.

The consumption data from these households will help to adopt the policies and decisions of the authorities.

“Tomorrow's energy comes with a liberalized market, diversification of supply sources and an active role of the consumer. We aim to change the culture of energy consumption, to prepare the system for differentiated tariffs in favour of consumers, so that in the end we optimize energy consumption at the level of the entire country. With the help of this project, we hope to demonstrate the benefits of smart meters and accelerate progress in the energy sector,” stated the Secretary of State responsible for digitalization within the Ministry of Energy, Cristina Pereteatcu.

“This project will pilot day and night tariffs in some of the households to incentivize them to shift their electricity use away from peak hours and potentially reduce their electricity bills. It will also enable grid management improvements, allowing utilities to monitor and manage electricity distribution, resulting in improved load balancing and reduced outages,” said the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative to the Republic of Moldova, Andrea Cuzyova.

The mayor of Edineț, Constantin Cojocari, welcomed that the meter was installed in the town. “At Edineț City Hall, we are supporters of smart solutions, whether it is public transport, lighting or smart energy consumption. We have to keep up with the times, to take over the best experiences and adapt to people's requirements," said Mayor Constantin Cojocari.

The head of “Furnizarea Energiei Electrice Nord” JSC (FEE Nord), Oleg Petelca, stated that the intelligent consumption of energy is one of the cheapest and most accessible ways to deal with high electricity bills and, at the same time, to reduce the dependence of the Republic of Moldova on certain imports. “The digitization of networks brings benefits to consumers in the form of innovative, data-driven services that can allow them to better manage their energy consumption in real time and save energy and money,” added Oleg Petelca.

A behavioural experiment carried out by UNDP, with the support of the EU, among the clients of FEE Nord showed that people who receive behavioural letters about their excess consumption, energy saving tips and about how they can change their consumption habits, ultimately reduce their consumption.

Smart meters measure the consumption at short intervals and automatically, securely, and accurately send the data to the energy distributor, without the supply companies having to send their employees to physically read the meters. At the same time, the supplier bills the actual energy consumption, not the estimated one, and is able to quicker identify and intervene in case of accidents. 

UNDP is testing several technical solutions that will be able to be expanded later throughout the country, among them the EU-funded programme “Rabla for household appliances”, to replace energy-consuming appliances with energy-efficient ones. Smart appliances will be able to automatically “read” the tariffs from the meter and decide which is the most convenient time to switch to.

In the European Union, over 50% of the meters are intelligent, which allowed to reduce by up to 15% the commercial consumption in the network and by 5% for technical losses. 

The programme could be extended to the whole country within a year, after the data on the functioning of the meters and data on individual energy consumption will be analyzed.