Like many other former Soviet Union republics, by the late 1990s
Moldova was facing a severe energy crisis. Entirely dependent on imported
energy, the country found itself unable to pay rapidly rising international
fuel prices. Debt to foreign oil and gas suppliers ballooned, and
per capita electricity consumption plunged to the lowest levels in Europe
(Figure 1). Per capita monthly electricity consumption in 2001 was about
51 kWh—just a quarter of the average consumption in Europe and Central
Asia countries [World Energy …, 2003].