| MEDT manages not to quarrel with energy market participants The Ministry of Economic Development has submitted to the government a package of documents on reforming the electric power industry. These are draft amendments to the Civil Code, to the law “On the regulation of tariffs for heat and electricity”, as well as to the resolution “On the Unified National Electric Network”. Now German Gref’s department intends to closely discuss the draft law “On the Electric Power Industry”. So far, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade says that it takes into account the opinions of all market participants and has created an interdepartmental group to finalize the law.
It is significant that all of the above-mentioned documents, with the exception of the draft law “On the Electricity Industry,” did not cause heated debate. Deputy Minister Andrei Sharonov said yesterday that the ministry managed to resolve one of the most pressing issues - about payment for the use of networks owned by regional energy companies (now energy companies that are not part of RAO UES of Russia are arguing with the management of the energy holding about who should pay and how much for maintaining the frequency of current in main networks).
The new scheme, according to Mr. Sharonov, looks like this: regional power engineers who own backbone networks will not necessarily transfer them to the newly created Federal Grid Company (FGC), but will simply be able to hand them over to operational management and receive payment for it. This seems to suit all market participants.
As for the comments to the draft law “On Electric Power Industry,” some ministries and departments have already sent them to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. In particular, nuclear scientists, according to Deputy Executive Director of the Rosenergoatom Concern Igor Redkin, propose to establish liability of energy enterprises for illegal actions. Also, he says, it is necessary to supplement the draft law with an article on protecting the rights of energy consumers (or introduce consumer insurance) and prescribe state control mechanisms. “So far there are only wishes about state control, but how it will be applied is not written down anywhere,” Mr. Redkin said.
In addition, he believes, the article on the sale of 51% or more shares of a network company and system operator (SO) to the state is outwardly incomprehensible.
Andrei Sharonov replies that the state will exchange its stake in RAO (52%) for the same stakes in FSK and SO, and if it subsequently decides to increase the state’s share in these companies, then it will either buy additional shares or exchange them for some others. Nikolay GORELOV |
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