| Smolny punished RAO UES of Russia with rubles The conflict between the administration of St. Petersburg and RAO UES of Russia over control over the city's energy sector resulted in financial losses for the energy holding. Yesterday it became known that the most modern North-West CHPP in Russia, which has been in operation for only two years, is still bringing nothing but losses to its owners.
The general director of the representative office of RAO UES of Russia - Sevzapenergo - Pyotr Bezukladnikov told reporters that the station's losses due to the inability to operate in heating mode amounted to about 1 billion rubles over two years. According to the manager’s calculations, this is exactly the amount needed for the construction of a heating main, through which heat will be supplied to the city. But the pipe so far exists only in a preliminary design, and the money for its construction does not appear either in the federal budget or in the project of the St. Petersburg treasury, even for 2004. At the same time, Mr. Bezukladnikov noted, the payback period for the route is two years, i.e. just as long as the station has already been operating, supplying about 3 million Gcal of heat energy, which successfully “flew down the chimney in the form of steam.”
If the city enters into a long-term agreement with RAO for the supply of heat, the construction of the heating main can be financed by the energy holding. The state enterprise “Fuel and Energy Complex of St. Petersburg” (TEK SPb) is ready to provide “several points for connecting the heating main from the thermal power plant to its system,” the press service of this enterprise said. And they added that the Primorsky district, next to which the thermal power plant is located, is the fastest growing in the city, and therefore needs new heat sources. But the fuel and energy complex of St. Petersburg cannot independently finance the construction of a 12-kilometer route.
Representatives of RAO several times proposed to the city to conclude an agreement on parity financing of construction. However, the St. Petersburg administration insists that “parity principles provide for parity in ownership and control over it.” A source for the Vremya Novostey newspaper in Smolny explained that construction of the route would be very expensive, since the pipe would have to be pulled through swamps and lakes. In addition, the thermal power plant will have to build a water supply system, since the volumes of water supplied to it will not be enough to generate steam. It seems that Mr. Yakovlev's administration is making it clear that it is not interested in the construction of the heating main and resolving the financial problems of RAO UES of Russia. This is apparently due to the fact that the city administration is in an acute confrontation with Lenenergo and personally the head of this RAO subsidiary, Andrei Likhachev. In March and April, several trials will take place regarding the nationalization of the St. Petersburg energy company, where Smolny and structures close to it are the plaintiff. And two years earlier, the administration registered its own network company in order to take away up to 30% of electricity sales in the city from Lenenergo.
The North-West CHPP was built from 1993 to 2000. So far, only its first unit with a capacity of 450 MW is operating, which was launched with great fanfare with the participation of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Leonid Kuchma. The construction cost about $500 million. 46.7% of the shares of North-Western Thermal Power Plant CJSC belong to RAO UES of Russia, 13.8% to Lenenergo, 7.5% to St. Petersburg. The construction was carried out by a consortium of Western subcontractors, and at the time the unit was put into operation, the thermal power plant’s debt to them exceeded $125 million. For settlements with creditors, all the station’s electricity is supplied to the consortium member, the Finnish concern Fortrum. Victor MATVEEV, St. Petersburg |
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