The US will provide US$85 million in foreign aid to the Republic of Moldova for battery energy storage system (BESS) projects, as well as high voltage transmission line upgrades, secretary of state Anthony Blinken said last week (29 May). Contact online >>
The US will provide US$85 million in foreign aid to the Republic of Moldova for battery energy storage system (BESS) projects, as well as high voltage transmission line upgrades, secretary of state Anthony Blinken said last week (29 May).
The result of the projects would be a strengthening of the country’s energy resilience and a stronger grid, Blinken said in a press event from the capital Chisinau.
The announcement press conference did not reveal the size of the BESS project, but Blinken’s statement indicated the BESS should be a substantial, if not majority portion of the funding. Blinken said the funding would “enhance things like battery storage, as well as the high voltage transmission lines that we''ve already dedicated some funds to.”
The US$85 million is part of a larger US$300 million package from the US to Moldova, which borders Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sparked a gas market crisis, which was particularly pronounced in Europe, leading to the continent to up its renewable energy deployment goals.
“We''re partnering closely to support economic and energy security. The Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid have exacerbated Moldova''s own energy challenges – raising electricity prices, hurting business and harming consumers,” Blinken said.
“The partnership that we have to reduce Moldova''s dependence on Russian energy, to enhance connectivity with Europe, to increase the use of renewables – all of that, is moving forward. And we''ve seen you [Moldova] take remarkable steps in a short period of time to move away from this dependence.”
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The transition of the Moldovan power system from one that depends on imports and fossil fuels to one that is more self-reliant on domestic, renewable resources requires actions in two main areas. Firstly, an environment must be created that removes barriers for entry, encourages investment and mobilises finances for the deployment of renewable technologies. Secondly, Moldova needs to transition its power system to one that is flexible so that it can integrate the developing shares of variable renewables.
Power system flexibility is defined as "the ability of a power system to reliably and cost-effectively manage the variability and uncertainty of demand and supply across all relevant timescales, from ensuring instantaneous stability of the power system to supporting long-term security of supply" (IEA, 2019a).
Flexibility is already an important characteristic of all power systems, as they have been required to be able to respond to changes in electricity demand or sudden generation or transmission equipment failure. However, with the increasing prominence of VRE in global power systems, there has been a growing need to actively evaluate their inherent flexibility while planning and transforming systems to become more flexible.
There are four main flexibility resources: power plants (both conventional and VRE), electricity networks, storage and distributed energy resources. Appropriate policy, market and regulatory instruments are required to harness their full potential for flexibility. These options can be grouped into several categories of actions at various levels of decision making, as depicted below.
In order to capture the evolving impacts of VRE on power systems, and the resulting system integration issues, the IEA has developed a phase categorisation for systems under transition. The integration of VRE can be categorised into six different phases, with each phase having its unique set of challenges and potential solutions. This framework can be used to prioritise different measures to support system flexibility, identify relevant challenges and implement appropriate measures to support the system integration of VRE.
While renewable deployment is quite low in Moldova at present, meaning it is only in Phase1 of the integration of VRE challenges, current policy targets and the potential for switching to a more sustainable and secure energy resource mean that there is great potential for growth in the sector. As a result, it is important to start assessing flexibility requirements to accommodate future growth of VRE, especially as many measures may have a considerable lead-time for actual implementation.
In order to explore the possible pathways that are open to Moldova to support the accelerated deployment of VRE in its power system, this section looks at the transition to renewables across three main themes:
This trend is clear even in relatively immature markets such as Africa and LatinAmerica, and has had a positive effect on the contract prices for wind and solar, driving down auction prices.
Properly designed, auctions can help ensure transparency, increase levels of participation, and reduce uncertainties and delays. They can also enable different technologies to compete with one another. Auctions can also be designed to include elements that ensure VRE deployment is done in a relatively system-friendly way, for example by including locational requirements or by aligning results with grid development (IEA, 2017a).
Auctions have been instrumental in lowering the price for wind and solar projects globally, including in other systems close to Moldova which are also navigating the initial barriers to VRE deployment. In 2018, Albania, Armenia and Kazakhstan completed their first auction rounds, with PV prices averaging USD58per megawatt hour (/MWh) and onshore wind clearing at USD 53/MWh (IEA, 2019b).
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