Moldova switches on long-delayed power line to Romania, cutting a Russian energy lever

Moldova switched on a new high-voltage power line connecting its capital directly to Romania's electricity grid on Sunday, a project officials in Chișinău have spent more than two and a half years building and have cast as the final step in cutting the country's remaining energy dependence on Russia. President Maia Sandu and the European Union's enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, attended a ceremony marking the line's commissioning, according to Reuters and AFP reporting carried by Al Jazeera.

The 400-kilovolt line runs roughly 157 kilometers from the southern town of Vulcănești to Chișinău, where it ties into the European ENTSO-E transmission network. Moldovan officials have nicknamed it the "energy independence line." Its chief purpose is to let the capital draw power directly from Romania and the wider European market rather than through the Cuciurgan thermal plant in Transnistria, the pro-Russian breakaway region that has long supplied a large share of the country's electricity.

A project two years behind schedule

Construction began in March 2024 and was originally expected to finish within a year or two; it went live roughly two years after that original target, Al Jazeera reported. The World Bank's Moldova Power System Development Project, which helped finance the domestic grid work behind the line, put its cost at roughly 61 million euros, with additional financing for related substation and interconnection work coming from the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the EU's Neighbourhood Investment Facility. Energy Minister Dorin Junghietu said days before the launch that the line, once fully tested, would be capable of carrying more than half of Moldova's peak electricity consumption.

Moldova, a country of about 2.6 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, has for decades drawn much of its gas and a significant share of its electricity through pipelines and transmission lines that run via Transnistria or across Ukrainian territory. That dependence became a vulnerability after Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupted regional gas flows and, at various points, damaged or cut the lines Moldova relied on.

A gas crisis still unresolved

The power-line launch comes in the middle of an energy emergency. Moldova's parliament approved a state of emergency in October, running until November 20, after a spike in global gas prices strained household and industrial budgets; some European officials have accused Moscow of deliberately withholding supply to pressure the continent. Sandu wrote on social media that "for decades, Moscow used energy to blackmail us," adding that Moldova now buys no Russian gas and that two further power lines to Romania are planned.

"For decades, Moscow used energy to blackmail us."

Prime Minister Vasile Tofan, addressing a European energy forum days before the line's commissioning, said Moldova had already eliminated its dependence on Russian gas and that installed renewable generation capacity has grown more than tenfold over five years to exceed one gigawatt, according to a government statement. He said three separate 400-kilovolt lines to Romania are now in development and that Moldova wants to position itself as "a reliable energy bridge" for Ukraine's wartime needs and eventual reconstruction. One of those, the Strășeni–Gutinaș line, was designated a project of national public utility by Moldova's cabinet last year, according to an Energy Ministry decision, and has drawn a $130 million US grant.

Black Sea tensions frame the moment

The ceremony took place against a tenser regional backdrop. Romania has accused Russia of a drone strike that sank a cargo ship off its Black Sea coast in October, killing one crew member and leaving three missing, and Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria have pressed NATO to reinforce surveillance of shipping lanes after a string of attacks on commercial vessels. NATO said in late October it would send additional maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems and drones to the Black Sea, and France has since extended the deployment of a patrol aircraft based in Romania that helped detect drones involved in one of the strikes. Kos's own EU portfolio includes developing a Black Sea strategy alongside the bloc's foreign-policy chief, a mandate described on her official European Commission biography, which also covers steering Moldova's and Ukraine's EU membership bids.

For Moldova, the stakes extend beyond this winter's gas bills. The country is pushing to finish EU accession negotiations by the first quarter of 2028, and Brussels has repeatedly tied its support for Moldovan energy infrastructure to that broader integration push. The breakaway Transnistria region, which hosts the Cuciurgan plant that the new line is designed to bypass, remains outside Chișinău's control, and Tofan said authorities are working to gradually fold it back into the national economy rather than waiting for a political settlement. Transnistria has functioned as a separate, Russian-backed enclave since a brief war in 1992, is not recognized as independent by any United Nations member state, and continues to host a small contingent of Russian troops — a standing complication for any Moldovan government trying to consolidate control over its own energy and economic policy.

What comes next

Moldovan officials say the Vulcănești–Chișinău line will undergo further load testing before reaching full capacity, and Sandu has pointed to two additional interconnection projects with Romania, including the Strășeni–Gutinaș line and a planned link through Bălți, as the next steps toward what officials call full energy independence. The state of emergency over gas supply is due to expire on November 20, though officials have not said whether it will be extended. Regionally, NATO's reinforced Black Sea patrols and France's extended aircraft deployment are expected to continue for now, as member states weigh further protections for shipping lanes that run close to Romanian and Bulgarian waters.