Within an online public event, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has presented the results of the survey „Energy consumption in households” for the year 2021, conducted during the period of 1 April 2021 – 1 April 2022.

The event was attended by the representatives of the central public authorities, other institutions and organizations, as well as representatives from the Energy Community Secretariat, the Statistical Office of the European Union - Eurostat, the International Energy Agency, representatives of statistical offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia.

At the beginning of the event, Mr. Oleg CARA, Director General of the NBS, mentioned: „this statistical survey was carried out for the purpose of extending and updating the statistical data in the energy field, as well as the quality of energy statistics”. At the same time, Oleg Cara emphasized that its implementation was performed in accordance with European standards and best practices: „The obligations of the Republic of Moldova as a member of the Energy Community, as well as the alignment of national statistics with the provisions of the acquis communautaire are a priority for the NBS, especially in the context of obtaining by the Republic of Moldova the status of candidate country for accession to the European Union. The development of the statistical toolkit, with the implementation of the 2nd round of the survey on Energy consumption in households was successfully completed", noted the Director General of the NBS.

In the same context, Mr. Nicolae MAGDÎL, senior consultant within Energy Policy Division, Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development (MIRD), discussed about the importance of the statistical data in managing the situation in the energy sector, highlighting the efforts of the NBS to carry out the survey on „Energy consumption in households”. The MIRD representative stated that „the results are welcome and very useful for the development and monitoring of energy policies".

During the event, Mrs. Milka MUMOVIC, expert in electricity and statistics at the Energy Community Secretariat, highly appreciated the work carried out by the NBS which produces statistics aligned with European standards, the NBS once again demonstrating responsibility and dedication to the highest professional standards. „The survey on energy consumption in households was carried out in a timely manner and contains information that represents a solid and very important database for monitoring policies in this area”, the expert noted. At the same time, Milka Mumovic mentioned that the success of conducting this survey on a regular basis by the NBS places the Republic of Moldova once again in the top of the energy community.

We note the „Energy consumption in households” survey was in the second round in 2022, the first being carried out by the NBS in 2016 for the reference year 2015. At the same time, we inform you that, in order to have continuity of data, the NBS will carry out the mentioned survey once every 5 years, in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on energy statistics and Directive 2008/92/EC on community monthly energy statistics , as well as the Amendment No. 431/2014 regarding the implementation of annual statistics on energy consumption in households.

The information obtained as a result of the survey on energy consumption in households will be used in particular for the determination of energy consumption in households, the structure of consumption, as well as the database for the development of statistical indicators in this field, which will serve as a source of reliable information for the development and implementation of energy efficiency policies.

The main results of the survey on „Energy consumption in households”

According to the survey on energy consumption in households, 61.9% of households live in dwellings with a total area of ​​50-99 m², 20.8% - in dwellings of 21-49 m² and 15.8% of households have dwellings with an area of ​​over 100 m². During the cold period of the year, a smaller area is heated than the total area of the dwelling. Most residents use individual stoves (64.4%), centralized heating systems - 18.3%, and 16.5% of households have autonomous heating systems.

More than 40 percent of households (43.2%) live in dwellings having any type of domestic hot water system and only 8.9% are connected to collective domestic hot water systems. In rural area, 62.9% of dwellings have no domestic hot water systems, 36.8% of rural dwellings use individual domestic hot water systems and only 0.3% of them are connected to the collective domestic hot water systems.

Only 6.1% of dwellings are equipped with local air conditioning systems, the dwellings space cooling/heating by air conditioning systems amounting 2113,1 thousand m², and 89. 9% of them are in the urban area.

Preparation of food on the kitchen stove, 66% of households use for cooking the kitchen stove connected to natural gas (collective systems) and 29.8% use gas tanks. A rate of 2.8% prepare food mainly on wood cooking stove or other agricultural waste. The oven connected to the electricity source is used in 55.8% of households, 33.7% use gas oven, connected to the collective gas systems, 6.0% - use ovens connected to liquefied (petroleum) gases and 4.4% - use wood oven.

Of the total households, 51.4% knew what the notion of ”energy class” represents and what are the most important characteristics of the respective product (home appliances) from the point of view of energy efficiency and the impact on the environment. At the same time, only 45.1% of households are guided by energy labels when purchasing an energy-related product.

On average, a household that uses firewood as an energy source utilized 3.9 m³ per year, those that use coal used 292.3 kg, and those that use natural gas - about 525.8 m³.

The results of the survey are available in the Publication ”Energy consumption in households”.

The event was organized with the assistance of the Energy Community.

Related materials:

• Presentation ”Energy Consumption in Households” (in rom.), Svetlana BULGAC, Head of the General Division for Business Statistics within NBS
• Presentation ”Final energy consumption in households”, Eurostat
• Publication ”Energy consumption in households”