Since 28 July, the Republic of Moldova has been under a national state of alert in the energy sector, declared by Government Decision no. 377 for 30 days. On the same day, through a separate decision, no. 378, a state of hydrological alert was declared as well. On 3 August, the National Crisis Management Commission adopted two decisions putting concrete measures into effect the same day: one on energy, the other on water. The first is binding, in its own terms, “on all public authorities, economic operators and the institutions concerned”; the second binds in the same way. It applies in Ungheni too.
Each measure, however, has its own addressee, and several of them concern expressly only the Dniester basin. Below, what actually changes here.
Energy: what goes dark, and when
Fountains, shop windows and decorative, architectural and advertising lighting — indoor and outdoor — are switched off between 18.00 and 06.00. The obligation falls on the administrators of public buildings and commercial premises. The only exception is business sign lighting, within the meaning of Law no. 62/2022 on advertising — that is, the name, the trademark, the emblem, the opening hours and the lines of business of the enterprise, not merely the sign bearing its name. During the day, outside that interval, their use is limited “to the minimum necessary level”.
Public buildings and commercial premises cut at least 30% of their interior lighting, “where possible”, and switch it off as soon as the rooms are left unoccupied.
Firms with energy-intensive production processes — electric furnaces, melting installations, electric arc welding equipment — reorganise their working hours so that high-consumption machinery operates outside the intervals 06.00–09.00 and 18.00–23.00.
Water supply and sewerage operators, and therefore Apă-Canal Ungheni as well, adjust the operating regime of the pumps in the storage reservoirs so as to consume as little as possible in the same two intervals, making the most of the reservoirs’ storage capacity.
Central and local public authorities apply measures to rationalise consumption, especially at peak hours, “without affecting the safety of citizens, public health or the functioning of essential services”, including by optimising public lighting.
In blocks of flats and in buildings fitted with lifts, the administrators are required to post a notice on the ground floor, in the lift call area. Its content is a recommendation for residents, not a ban: avoid the lift between 06.00–09.00 and 18.00–23.00, so that nobody is left trapped in the cabin if the power goes out.
At network level, Moldelectrica sets to zero the interconnection capacities available for export between 18.00 and 22.00, except for the supplier on which the public service obligation has been imposed, while Energocom contracts alternative sources from Romania, Ukraine and other markets accessible through transit.
What a householder can do
The recommendations of the National Crisis Management Centre for the hours of peak consumption: switch off the lights and the appliances you are not using; put off the washing machine, the dryer, the electric oven and other high-consumption appliances; keep air conditioning to the strict minimum; avoid the lift, if you can. From the same source: prepare an alternative source of light in advance and charge your phones, in case of interruptions.
On 4 August, for the evening of that same day, the Centre had announced a forecast deficit in commercial terms of about 74 MWh between 21.00 and 22.00 and of about 56 MWh between 22.00 and 23.00, with Moldelectrica to use the emergency energy mechanisms. The causes given — the heatwave across the region and the low flow of the Danube, which reduces the cooling capacity of several power plants. A deficit in commercial terms means a gap in market procurement, not automatically a blackout.
Water: what concerns us and what does not
Decision no. 4 of 3 August, adopted on the basis of the decision on the hydrological alert, prohibits the use of drinking water from public supply systems and of water from surface sources for washing streets and pavements, filling swimming pools and other recreational basins. The ban carries no territorial limitation, so it applies in Ungheni too.
Also without any territorial limitation, point 5: industrial economic operators whose activities are not indispensable to the production of basic foodstuffs, to the medical field or to public health cut their water consumption by at least 20%.
Other points of the same decision, however, concern expressly the Dniester basin: the direct irrigation of agricultural land, permitted exclusively between 21.00 and 06.00, under the supervision of the National Agency for Land Reclamation; and the activation of reserve boreholes, an obligation of the local authorities and of the operators “in the Dniester basin”.
The distinction matters here: Apă-Canal Ungheni abstracts its water from the Prut river. The hydrological alert is motivated entirely by the falling flow of the Dniester — the word “Prut” does not appear in the text of either of the two government decisions.
How long it lasts
Both states of alert were declared on 28 July, for 30 days. The National Crisis Management Commission can change the measures as it goes: decisions no. 3 and no. 4 of 3 August have already supplemented those adopted on 28 July.