The Board of Directors of the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) has approved, for the first time since the amendment of the legislative framework, the application of the non-utilization fee for holders of connection permits to electricity networks of power plants with an installed capacity greater than 200 kW, issued or extended before March 27, 2025, but not used before their expiration.

The initiative to introduce a non-utilization fee and performance guarantee was launched by the Ministry of Energy to hold permit holders accountable, as some permits had been obtained for speculative purposes or left unused, blocking network access for other investors.

Under these provisions, holders of connection permits who did not voluntarily renounce them by June 30, 2025, and failed to implement projects within the prescribed deadlines will pay, upon expiration of the permits, a fee ranging between 50% and 70% of the associated financial performance guarantee.

Thus, after June 30, 30 connection permits with a total capacity of over 109 MW were returned to electricity transmission and distribution operators. Of these, two permits with a capacity of 64.09 MW were returned to Moldelectrica, 16 permits totaling 36.6 MW to Premier Energy Distribution, and 12 permits totaling 8.55 MW to RED Nord JSC.

It should be noted that for connection permits issued after June 30, 2025, new permit holders will be required to submit a financial guarantee when obtaining the permit. If the power plant is not built, the financial guarantee will be retained by the network operator to cover network maintenance works.

The total amount set for this first application of the non-utilization fee by ANRE is over 103 million lei, which will be transferred to the state budget. The monitoring of payments and, if necessary, the enforcement of compulsory measures will be carried out by the State Tax Service.

It should be recalled that by February this year, the transmission system operator Moldelectrica had issued permits amounting to approximately 1500 MW for the installation of new capacities, mainly renewable energy sources. However, less than 10% of these connection permits are put into operation annually. At the same time, Premier Energy Distribution had issued connection permits totaling 329 MW, while the distribution system operator RED Nord JSC had issued permits for 96.4 MW.