Another 18,000 smart meters for Moldova

A third batch of 18,000 smart meters is set to be installed in Moldova with support from UNDP and funding from the Italian government.

This third batch of 18,000 smart meters, part of a pilot smart metering project for electricity being implemented by Moldova’s Ministry of Energy, complements the second phase with 14,000 smart meters announced in January 20205 to bring the total installation to 32,000 smart meters in 2025.

The meters are being installed within the central-south distribution network by Premier Energy Distribution and in the northern distribution area by RED Nord.

The first batch of 3,000 meters were installed in 2026 so that by 2027 60,000 households should be equipped with smart meters, amounting to just over 4% of the total 1.4 million electricity consumers.

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In addition to the meters, the two DSOs are receiving other metering infrastructure, including data concentrators, head-end system servers, data storage systems and communication modules.

This infrastructure will enable technology testing and should lay the foundation for the future national rollout of smart meters.

Other benefits for Premier Energy Distribution and RED Nord include the essential components for consumption management and customer billing, gaining access to billing servers, transaction and consumption data processing systems, uninterruptible power supply units for operational continuity, billing function management systems and time synchronisation systems.

The initiative aims to contribute to more efficient energy demand management, network balancing, a resilient energy infrastructure, and alignment with European standards.

The consumption points where the pilot smart meters are being installed have been selected and modelled to ensure national representativity, covering both urban and rural areas and including both densely populated and less populated areas as well as households consuming less than 10kWh per month to those exceeding 180kWh per month.

They also consider the diversity of electricity infrastructure from modern grids to older electrical networks to test technology compatibility.

It also is planned to assess the impact of smart meters on vulnerable consumers.

Premier Energy Distribution serves approximately 70% of the territory of the Republic of Moldova and RED Nord the remainder in the north of the country.