How big the market is
For 2025, 652 companies in division 35 filed financial statements, against 520 a year earlier. Together they had 11,265 employees and sales revenue of 68.3 billion lei, a third more than in 2024. The picture is very uneven: 618 of them have fewer than ten employees, and 335, more than half, reported no sales at all in 2025.
The average gross wage in energy was 25,405 lei in the fourth quarter of 2025, more than 50% above the economy-wide average of 16,355 lei.
What is licensed and what is not
Every activity in energy has the same regulator, the National Agency for Energy Regulation, but there are three laws: on electricity, on natural gas and on thermal energy. Alongside them, the renewable energy law sets out the support schemes and the rules for prosumers.
For electricity, the 2025 law lists nine licences. Generation, storage, supply, trading and aggregation are open to anyone who meets the conditions, and the number of licences is not limited. Transmission and distribution give the holder an exclusive right in the licensed area, while system dispatch and market operation are single functions held by designated entities. A storage licence is required from 1 MW of injection capacity, including for a customer that has a storage facility that large.
Plants under 5 MW, prosumers and electric vehicle charging stations need no licence. That does not mean no rules: connection, technical standards and tax rules apply to all of them.
The ANRE licence is not the only permit. Electricity generation, transmission and distribution, gas production, and the distribution and sale of gas through pipelines are on the list of activities in the Law on industrial emissions that require an environmental permit from the Environment Agency, valid for six years. The list sets no capacity threshold for these classes. Heat and power plants with combustion from 5 MW to 50 MW need the same permit, and those of 50 MW or more need an integrated environmental permit, valid for 12 years.
The energy laws require the company to be registered in Moldova, and ANRE checks the registration itself through the interoperability platform, without asking for a register extract. Licence holders pay regulatory fees every quarter, calculated on sales revenue, of no more than 0.3%.
Investment in energy infrastructure needs prior approval
Operating licensed facilities for the generation, transmission and distribution of energy is a domain of importance for state security. Anyone acquiring control or a qualifying holding in a company in this domain needs, before investing, the approval of the Council for the Examination of Investments of Importance for State Security. The rule applies to every investor, Moldovan or foreign, and the €1 million threshold that applies in other domains does not apply to energy.
The application sets out the capital structure and the beneficial owner, the amount and source of the funds, three years of financial statements and the shareholders’ criminal records. The Council decides within 45 days at most of receiving a complete application. Without approval, the parties must restore the position that existed before the investment, and if they do not do so by the deadline the Council sets, the investor pays a fine of up to 5% of turnover, capped at 5 million lei; a new company with no turnover pays between 2 and 5 million. If you are not sure whether your investment falls under the law, you can ask the Council, which replies within 10 working days.
Generation: the 200 kW, 5 MW and 20 MW thresholds
For a solar or wind park, three figures decide how complicated the path will be.
Every grid-connected plant starts with the connection permit (aviz de racordare), which the network operator issues free of charge, within 30 days for a power plant. Above 200 kW, the permit holder lodges a performance guarantee, the amount of which is set by ANRE; if it does not, the permit is cancelled. Where the network has no capacity left, the operator can offer a connection contract on flexible terms. The connection can be designed and built by the operator, or by a designer and an authorised electrician hired by the applicant.
From 5 MW, an ANRE generation licence is required. For renewable energy plants, the licence can be obtained before construction, but ANRE withdraws it if the plant is not ready within four years.
Above 20 MW, building a new plant or increasing the capacity of an existing one is authorised by Government decision, which is followed by the building permit. Winners of state-run auctions are exempt.
A licensed producer sells on the wholesale market. To sell directly to customers, through direct purchase agreements, it also needs a supply licence. Metering equipment is connected to the network operator’s automated system, and a cogeneration plant, which produces heat as well, needs the thermal energy licence too.
Eligible producers
The renewable energy law has two support schemes. A large eligible producer wins its status at an auction organised by the Government and sells its entire output to the central electricity supplier, at the price set in the auction. A small eligible producer, with a plant from 10 kW up to the ceiling set by the Government, receives a fixed tariff approved by ANRE once its status is confirmed. A producer can leave the contract at any time, but cannot go back. Those who sell at the market price need no status at all.
Electricity supply and trading
A supplier sells electricity to customers and sets its own prices. The exceptions are universal service, to which household customers, micro-enterprises and small businesses are entitled, and last-resort supply, for customers left without a supplier. Prices for these are approved by ANRE, and the suppliers that provide them are designated. A new supplier therefore competes, first and foremost, for businesses that negotiate their contracts.
A trader has no final customers: it buys and sells on the wholesale market, solely for resale. That is why the conditions for its licence are the simplest in the sector: just registration and financial statements or a bank statement. A supplier also needs qualified staff and customer service centres. Both licences are valid for 10 years throughout the country, and ANRE decides within 15 days.
Before its first transaction on the wholesale market, the company registers in the Register of Wholesale Energy Market Participants, kept by ANRE. The register also asks for the beneficial owner of the transactions, and any change must be notified without delay.
Aggregation is a new licence: an aggregator combines the consumption or generation of several customers and sells it on the market. A customer can sign an aggregation contract without its supplier’s consent.
Between licensed traders and suppliers, electricity and gas are invoiced under the reverse charge, with no VAT on the invoice. How VAT works in other cases, including for new businesses, is explained in our guide to taxes and fees in 2026.
Natural gas: the toughest entry conditions
The natural gas supply licence is valid for 25 years and the trading licence for 10, and the conditions are stricter than for electricity. The applicant must have 1 million lei at its disposal, when it applies and for the whole term of the licence, in its account, through credit lines or as loans from its shareholders. The director must have higher education. Gas trading is reserved for legal persons, and a trader cannot hold a supply licence at the same time.
For both licences, ANRE requires the opinion of the Information and Security Service, which assesses the risks to state security and of money laundering. The opinion comes within 10 working days. If it does not arrive in time, it is deemed positive, and a negative one means the licence is refused.
Retail gas suppliers also have two obligations relating to stocks. They pay contributions towards the state’s security stocks in proportion to their market share and, if they are on ANRE’s list, build up by 1 November their share of a stock equal to at least 15% of the country’s average annual consumption. The gas can be stored in facilities in the European Union or the Energy Community, and the storage obligation can be delegated to another licensed supplier or trader.
Natural gas carries 8% VAT, as do transmission and distribution services. Distribution networks are local monopolies: only one operator works in each licensed area.
Thermal energy
The thermal energy licence is required for heat that is sold, not for heat produced for your own buildings. A single licence covers production, distribution and supply, any of them, and is valid for 25 years. A sole trader can also obtain it.
Since 30 December 2025, the applicant declares on its own responsibility that it has the financial capacity, and ANRE checks the registration through the interoperability platform and can check the director’s criminal record declaration in the same way. One condition to bear in mind early: the director must have the right of permanent residence in Moldova.
Tariffs are not set freely. ANRE approves them for each activity, using a cost-based methodology, and the producer submits a five-year development plan. The producer also pays for connecting its plant.
Solar and heat pump installers
From 23 July 2026, photovoltaic panels, solar thermal collectors, heat pumps, geothermal systems and biomass boilers may be installed only by qualified individuals entered in the Register of Renewable Energy System Installers, kept by the National Centre for Sustainable Energy. The installation company does not register itself: it works through registered installers.
Installers register for one or more categories, after a training programme or after validation of skills gained through experience. Construction specialists certified as site supervisors or site managers for electrical or heating installations can, under certain conditions, register on the basis of their certificate. For photovoltaic panels, the installer must have at least electrical safety group III and work under the supervision of an electrician authorised by ANRE, unless they are one themselves. Registration lasts five years.
Installers keep a list of the systems they install and send it to the centre every six months. For categories that do not yet have a training provider, the requirements apply once one appears, and the centre has 24 months to identify such providers.
The installation company is also a construction company: it notifies the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision before it starts operating. Which panels can be installed without a building permit, and how the VAT exemption for installing renewable energy plants applies, is explained on the construction company page.
For electricity generation, supply and trading, the law accepts both a legal person and an individual registered as an entrepreneur. For thermal energy, a sole trader or a company. For gas trading, only a legal person. In practice, the requirements for staff, customer service centres and financial capacity point towards an SRL (limited liability company).
The independent entrepreneur regime is not an option for division 35: none of its classes appears on the list of activities. Among installation activities, the list includes only plumbing and heating installation, class 43.22, excluding gas work.
The director matters for every licence: higher or specialised secondary education for electricity, higher education for natural gas and thermal energy, and, for thermal energy, the right of permanent residence in Moldova as well. It is worth checking before you appoint them in the articles of association.
We handle the choice of CAEM codes, the articles of association, the filing at the Public Services Agency and the opening of the bank account. For an energy company, we also prepare the ANRE licence application, and for a foreign company entering the market we register the Moldovan company or subsidiary. We can take over the accounting, with separate records for each licensed activity, from the first month. What each service includes is set out on the corporate services page.
