In 2010 the Moldova Energy and Biomass Project (MEBP) was launched, a 4-year project which aim was to contribute to a more secure, competitive and sustainable energy production through targeted support to the biomass sector.

This 14.56 million EUR project consisted of several outputs of which the most important was the establishment or improvement of municipal biomass heating systems and fuel supply markets.

About 130 thermal heating systems were built for an overall capacity of around 40 MW to supply more than 89,000 people. Additional tasks were also carried out to support this initiative such as market mechanisms implementation to involve the local fuel suppliers and very specific low-cost actions on policy, regulation, and contracting to support the market environment.

Before launching a second phase, the EU delegation asked the AETS Consortium to perform a technical review of the first phase and analyse whether this could be further improved.

The requested analysis focused on technical, financial and procurement aspects of this MEBP output with the aim of comparing this project with EU best practices and benchmarks.