The National Center for Sustainable Energy has identified 944 buildings of public institutions that have heating installations based on fossil fuels (coal) or stoves, with installations with a total power of approx. 48.7 MW. At the same time, approx. 3575 public buildings and approx. 6942 residential blocks or groups of such buildings have (fully or partially) natural gas heating installations, according to data collected by CNED from representatives of local public administration and operators of natural gas distribution systems.

 

The data is collected in the context of efforts to make energy consumption more efficient in the Republic of Moldova, given that over 50% of final energy consumption is in the buildings sector, and heating a square meter costs twice as much as in European Union countries. This is due to the age of the building stock, 76% of which was built during the Soviet period, when energy efficiency standards were not implemented.

 

Thus, the Republic of Moldova has committed to annually renovate 1% of the area of ​​public buildings in the state where the specialized central public administration authorities operate, and 3% (203,229 m2) of the total area of ​​public buildings in the state, starting with January 1, 2024. At the same time, for the housing sector, the Energy Efficiency Fund in the Residential Sector (FEERM) managed by the National Center for Sustainable Energy was launched, which will invest in the energy rehabilitation of over half a million square meters of space in apartment buildings and individual houses.

 

In this regard, the Ministry of Energy has developed a Strategy for the Renovation of the Building Stock for the period 2025-2030, which examines three options for building rehabilitation - simple, medium and deep. The measures have been grouped in such a way that the categories for renovation could be implemented consecutively, depending on the availability of financial sources.

 

At the same time, the Roadmap for Sustainable Heating is being developed, which will propose solutions for the efficient development of the heating system in the Republic of Moldova. According to the document, 64.4% of households heat with stoves and firewood, 18.3% are connected to centralized heating systems, and autonomous systems using gas, electricity, wood or coal represent the heating source for 16.5% of households.

 

The total number of buildings connected to the centralized heating system is 4411. Based on data provided by Termoelectrica, there are 3102 residential buildings (including 2844 multi-family blocks (about 207,000 apartments) and 258 single-family houses), 487 public institutions (including kindergartens, schools, higher education institutions and medical institutions, etc.) and 821 commercial buildings. CET-Nord supplies thermal energy to over 33 thousand apartments, 463 commercial buildings and 43 public buildings.