Battle for the dungeon

The power engineers did not share the metro metro the question of who will be a supplier of electricity for the Moscow metro next year remains open. Yesterday, OJSC Mosenergosbyt, which collaborates with the metro since 1999, posted on its official website a message that the company has prepared a competitive offer for the subway, which allowed the fare in 2009. Meanwhile, another energy company - the Russian -Italian operator of Rusenergosbyt LLC has been applying for work with the capital's subway from next year.

However, as noted in the report, the information that Mosenergosbyt will stop serving the subway and premature next year. “Currently, working contacts and negotiations on the conditions of further cooperation are underway with the leadership of the metro,” Mosenergosbyt notes.

Meanwhile, at a recent press conference, the head of the Moscow Metro Dmitry Gayev directly stated that the next year the Rusenergosbyt supplier will be the power supply. “The struggle of these two companies for the right to supply the metro energy in 2009 showed that they are ready to provide the best conditions. It is possible that contests at the choice of the supplier will be held annually, ”Gaev said.

The information that the choice of a supplier is a resolved case, yesterday the newspaper correspondent was confirmed by Rusenergosbyt. “In relation to the Moscow metro, we are sure that we will begin to supply this company since January 2009. All documents with the consumer have already been signed and launched into work, ”said Mikhail Andronov, CEO of Rusenergosbyt. “For us, this issue is unresolved, negotiations are ongoing. Until the end of 2008, the metro is our client. Whether the contract will be concluded for next year - the issue is still open, ”the adviser to the general director for public interaction and the Mosenergosbyt media, Sergei Kozlovsky, does not agree. Moreover, according to him, in Mosenergosbyt today they do not see the schemes according to which the metro could change the supplier. Until the end of 2009, Mosenergosbyt is a guaranteeing supplier for the subway, for which 100 million rubles of cross -country subsidies are laid. “This is a fairly large amount to just shift it to someone else. We guaranteeing the supplier, the metro is in our area of action, and the tariff set for the metro is also set for the guaranteeing supplier, which was determined by the regional energy commission, and will not change until the end of 2009, ”said Sergey Kozlovsky.

There is another problem: according to Kozlovsky, if the metro wants to change the supplier, then he will have to become an independent participant in the wholesale energy market, which is impossible to do today, since the subway does not yet have a commercial electricity accounting system.

In Rusenergosbyt, the above problems are perplexed. “The Moscow metro is not the first client that we take from Mosenergosbyt. For several years now we have been supplying the Moscow railway, and then the issue of crossing was resolved, ”the newspaper correspondent explained in the company. “In addition, Rusenergosbyt is also a guaranteeing supplier in Moscow, so we will supply the metro from the wholesale market.”

Such a frantic confrontation between power engineers is understandable: annually, the metropolitan subway consumes about 1.8 billion kWh of energy. So the price of the issue, according to analysts, is about 4 billion rubles. Not in the way of such disputes and consumers. “The main conclusion from this situation is healthy competition forces the monopolist to reduce the price,” says Mikhail Andronov. The Mosenergosbyt agrees with this. “The proposals for reducing tariffs have been prepared for a long time, but now competitive conditions have appeared, which before there were simply no,” admits Sergei Kozlovsky.

09/01/2008 / Kira Remneva, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 165 dated 02.09.2008.