Moldova opens 400 kV power link to Romania, bypassing Transnistrian grid node

The line and its route

Moldova put a new overhead power line into service on Sunday, 8 November 2026. The 400 kV Vulcănești-Chișinău line, nicknamed the "Linia independenței energetice" (Energy Independence Line), runs from the Vulcănești substation to the Chișinău substation. Digi24, citing AFP and Moldpres, gives its length as 157 km, while adevarul.ro puts it at about 158 km. Power from Romania and the wider European market can now reach central Moldova without passing through the Cuciurgan power plant node in the Transnistrian region. The Ministry of Energy, cited by HotNews.ro, says the line can carry more than 50% of the country's electricity consumption.

Why the line was built

Maia Sandu told the ceremony that for three decades after independence the country's energy links were too thin to protect it. She said Moldova had repeatedly faced threats of losing light and heating whenever it chose a path Moscow did not want, with the last disconnection in autumn 2021. Discussion of a direct line to the Romanian market has run for more than a decade, with the first steps taken in 2013. In September 2019 the government she led approved a World Bank financing agreement worth 61 million euros for construction. The original completion target was August 2024, but deadlines slipped, partly because of Russia's war against Ukraine, which affected the availability and delivery of equipment.

“In the first 30 years of independence, Moldova invested too little in energy interconnections, and dependence on a limited number of sources cost us.”

Ceremony, construction and officials

The opening took place at the Chișinău Electrical Station, with EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos, who was visiting Moldova, and Energy Minister Dorin Junghietu attending alongside Sandu. Construction was completed in November 2025, after which technical tests, safety checks and acceptance procedures followed. The Vulcănești station was ready in June 2026, and the Chișinău station began testing a few weeks before the ceremony, according to Sandu. Kos said the commissioning marked the end of Moldova's energy dependence on Russia.

Junghietu said the project had passed through several stages, mandates and crises, and that its result had to be concrete for ordinary citizens.

“For the Republic of Moldova, energy security means light in homes, but also freedom to take decisions without fear that someone will use energy to impose their will.”

Prices, consumers and security

Sandu acknowledged that high prices on external energy markets, driven by wars, climate change and regional crises, have raised costs for consumers. The government will have to keep allocating resources to ease tariffs in the cold season, she said. She expressed confidence that the global energy market would balance over the medium term. Sandu also framed the new line as a way to cut the risk of disconnection.

“Nobody can blackmail us anymore, turn off the lights and close the heating.”

EU accession and the Romania question

In its annual enlargement package presented in early November, the European Commission said Moldova had met the conditions to continue accession negotiations, citing progress on aligning legislation with EU law and on the rule of law. Brussels hopes Moldova keeps up its reform pace toward concluding talks by early 2028. In an interview with the Hungarian outlet Válasz Online, Sandu said European integration remains a policy most citizens support. She also said she would vote for uniting Moldova with Romania if the question were put to a referendum, arguing that such a union could address security amid the Russian threat.