”The Republic of Moldova has assumed international commitments according to which, as of 2019, all new public buildings shall become nearly zero energy buildings. With regards to the old buildings, the Municipalities may benefit from energy services, which grant access to technologies and funds to cover energy efficiency measures, which otherwise could not be implemented. In this respect, ESCO is the energy efficiency tool of the future”, Mihail Stratan, Director of the Energy Efficiency Agency, mentioned at an awareness-raising session conducted for 9 journalists from national media on 22 March 2016.

ESCO or Energy Service Company is a private entity that offers integrated technical and financial solutions aimed at reducing the energy-related costs (energy savings), which benefits are directly dependent on the performance of energy efficiency measures implemented under an Energy Performance Contract (EPC).

Nicolae Zaharia, Manager of ”ESCO Moldova – Transforming the Energy Market”, explained the ESCO Concept, the ways of financing the Energy Performance Contracts, and reported the progress achieved by the Project during the previous year. Hence, the Project created a loan guarantee mechanism worth $900,000, which would enable the Energy Efficiency Fund to provide loans to energy service companies in the amount of up to $3,000,000. The work on defining the regulations for the loan guarantee mechanism operation is in progress.

According to Nicolae Zaharia, the Project would support the implementation of 20 energy efficiency projects in Chisinau Municipality, of which 15 projects would be implemented in public buildings and five projects – in residential buildings. In summer, Chisinau City hall will initiate the procedures for launching public tenders to carry out five ESCO Projects throughout 2016.

ESCO Moldova Project is aimed to reduce the direct CO2 emissions with at least 68,000 tonnes on the basis of the supported EPC Projects, and the indirect CO2 emissions with at least 240,000 tonnes during the Project impact period. At the same time, the Project would provide support to Chisinau City Hall with the aim to improve the use of energy in the City buildings, especially in the institutional subsector and residential sector buildings.

“ESCO Moldova – Transforming the market for Urban Energy Efficiency in Moldova by introducing Energy Service Companies” is a four-year Project (2014-2018) with a budget totalling $ 1,450,000, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and co-funded and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Moldova.