OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2014. This was stated by Vice-premier, Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar after the sitting of the government.

As he said, Moldova is going to negotiate the decline since it can not accept the price of 6.9 cents per kWh and higher. According to the Economy Minister, Moldova is negotiating the power purchases with all possible regional suppliers. He has not given any details but emphasized this is not the negotiation but the final result that is important.

The validity of the current power supply contracts runs out on April 1 and Moldova has enough time to sign more advantageous contracts. Currently, Moldova is purchasing the power from DTEK Vostokenergo, member of DTEK, largest energy company of Ukrain, and from Moldovan Hydropower plant, situated in the region of Transdniestria and belonging to Inter RAO UES.

Both of them are selling power to Moldova at 6.9 cents per 1 kWh. Earlier, Ambassador of Ukraine to Moldova Sergey Pirozhkov said Ukraine covers 40% of Moldova's needs for electricity, the rest being covered by the Moldovan hydropower plant. The Ambassador said Moldova had announced its willingness to purchase more power from Ukraine provided that the tariffs are advantageous.

In his turn, Economy Minister of Moldova Valeriu Lazar said Moldova was interested in importing cheaper power from Romania and noted that the Romanian electricity is about 15% to 20% cheaper than that Moldova purchases from the current suppliers.