November 7 (SeeNews) - Moldova’s second-largest city of Balti has upgraded its heating utility CET Nord in a 10.74 million euro ($11.9 million) project financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P) fund.
The project is a cooperation between the EBRD, which has provided a 7 million euro loan and a 740,000 euro grant, and the E5P multi-donor fund which has contributed a 3 million euro grant, the bank said in a press release on Thursday.
"The upgrade has delivered important efficiency benefits which will improve living conditions for residents of Balti and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is heart-warming to see that our joint efforts have produced tangible results for the northern capital of Moldova," EBRD head for Moldova Angela Sax said.
The improvements include the installation of four combined heat and power generation plants with a total generating electric capacity of 13.4MW and thermic capacity of 12.5MW, the rehabilitation of the heat generation system, the installation of 169 individual heating substations in 130 residential buildings and the conversion of a coal-fired heat-only boiler to biomass fuel use.
As a result, consumers are now able to better regulate their heat consumption and pay only for the heat they use. The new technology will also decrease operating and maintenance costs for CET Nord, improving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions, the bank said.
The E5P facilitates investments in energy efficiency and environmental projects. Active in Moldova and other Eastern Partnership countries, the E5P is funded by the European Union, as the largest donor, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Sweden.
The EU is Moldova’s largest donor and has to date provided over 1 billion eurp in grant funding.
The EBRD is the leading institutional investor in the country and to date has invested over 1.3 billion eurp through almost 130 projects. The Bank also provides business advice to local small and medium-sized enterprises and has helped about 1,000 Moldovan firms improve their performance and growth.
($ = 0.9018 euro)