The rules stipulate that current participants in the wholesale electricity market will automatically be able to enter any segment of the future wholesale market. Other consumers wishing to buy energy at state prices will first have to obtain the status of "participant in the free trade sector." At the same time, the document does not describe the procedure and timeframe for consumers to enter the regulated market segment. A representative of a large industrial company, who asked not to be named in the press, fears that the "vagueness of the wording" will allow energy companies to continue to block enterprises from entering the wholesale market.

New rules for organizing wholesale electricity trades, which the government is to approve in September, will not bring joy to consumers. Buying cheap electricity on the regulated segment of the wholesale market will still be difficult for new consumers. Officials do not accept the claims of industrialists, and experts note that restricting access to the wholesale market is a forced measure.

Yesterday, the government commission on restructuring the electric power industry considered a draft government resolution that should define the mechanism for wholesale trade in electric power, including the abolition of state regulation of electricity prices. As its head, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, said after the commission meeting yesterday, the departments still have to agree on "certain disagreements" on the draft prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development. According to First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrei Sharonov, the Ministry of Energy has comments on the rules. Sharonov also calls them insignificant. It was not possible to obtain comments from the Ministry of Energy yesterday.

Sharonov says that Khristenko ordered all disagreements to be resolved by the end of this week. By September 10, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, the rules must be submitted to the government. This is the only way to meet the White House's intention to launch the free electricity trading sector on October 1. According to the draft rules available to Vedomosti, 85% of the market will still be controlled by the state. Generating companies will be able to put up no more than 15% of the energy they produce at free trades. Consumers will be able to buy no more than 30% of their own electricity needs at free trades.

And in free trades, electricity may be unaffordable for many consumers. In this segment, there may be a rush demand, which will lead to "price inflation," worries one of the potential participants in the trades. In these conditions, energy companies are unlikely to want to conclude long-term contracts, as provided for in the draft rules, and most enterprises will have to, as now, buy expensive electricity from JSC-energo, worries the businessman.

Sharonov from the Ministry of Economic Development assures that the rules will contain a clear list of requirements, having met which consumers will be able to buy electricity wholesale at state prices, so there will be no excitement on the free market. But Vladimir Milov, CEO of the Institute for Strategic Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex, shares the concerns of consumers, although he believes that maintaining the discriminatory mechanism for entering the wholesale market is inevitable. Otherwise, according to Milov, the uncontrolled entry of consumers into the wholesale market will lead to a sharp increase in losses for regional energy systems.

Wholesale does not mean cheap