Electricity consumers who have smart meters installed as part of a pilot project next year could pay three different tariffs: night, day and peak tariffs. The Energy Ministry has initiated discussions with market suppliers and the regulator to test these solutions.

On 13 June, the Ministry launched with the support of the United Nations Development Programme in Moldova and other development partners the pilot programme to install up to 35 thousand smart meters, which constitutes about 3% of all electricity consumers, as part of the national plan to digitalize the energy sector.

End consumers will be selected by energy distributors on the basis of a demographic and geographic sample.

The initiative has aroused interest among some consumers and real estate developers who would also like to implement smart energy consumption solutions. The participants of the meeting agreed that the future tariffs scheme will initially be applied only to the participants of the pilot project, and the aim is to observe their behavior, consumption habits, whether possible night tariffs, which are lower as a rule, will help to reduce consumption peaks and stabilize the power system. Particularly in the winter months there is a pressing need to reduce these energy consumption peaks.

Both Romania and Ukraine use such time-zone tariffs, and the state company Energocom buys part of its electricity by the hour on the Romanian OPCOM exchange.

Cristina Pereteatcu, the state secretary responsible for the digitalization of the energy sector, said that the experiment aims to educate consumers, to play a more active role in the era of digitalization, and the authorities are preparing solutions for the whole system in the medium and long term.