From today, residents of Barnaul will have to pay for electricity according to the system that operated in the Altai Territory until 2001 - according to receipts from Barnaul Gorelektroset OJSC (BGES). The management of the BGES disseminated the corresponding warnings through the media, referring to the protocol of the board on state regulation of tariffs for electric and thermal energy of the main department of economics and investment of the regional administration dated August 4. It was decided to transfer the energy sales function from Altaienergo to the Barnaul City Electric Network until September 1, 2004. However, the question of who exactly Barnaul residents should pay for electricity remains open. Altaienergo insists on providing BGES with guarantees of timely payment to power engineers for electricity. The trial that began yesterday in the regional arbitration court on the claim of the Barnaul City Electric Network against Altaienergo for the return of its sales functions was postponed to September 3. According to the head of the public relations department of Altaienergo OJSC, Anatoly Ivkin, there is no disagreement that Barnaul electricity consumers should be transferred to the city power grid. The question is - under what conditions? “In 2000, we already had troubles when Barnual residents paid for electricity using receipts from the city power grid. During the year, BGES never paid in full for the energy resources consumed. Her debt to Altaienergo reached two months and 22 million rubles. We didn't have enough money to buy fuel or carry out repairs. The system began to feel feverish. This led to rolling blackouts of consumers from power supplies,” Mr. Ivkin reminded Kommersant. “We don’t want to step on the rake a second time.”
According to him, JSC-Energo, in order to ensure the obligations of the Barnaul City Electric Network for timely and complete payments, requires “guarantees that protect city residents from blackouts and ensure that JSC Altaienergo compensates for underpayments,” which, in particular, could be the electric networks themselves. The management of BGES refuses to re-sign the contract with Altaienergo, considering the demands of the power engineers to be illegal, and is awaiting the decision of the arbitration court, believing that it will put an end to its disputes with the energy company.
Deputy General Director of BGES Dmitry Heifman called Anatoly Ivkin’s statement that under the current energy supply agreement the city power grid already owes Altaienergo 11 million rubles as “an outright lie.” “We don’t owe Altaienergo a penny,” he objected, “unless we consider the current debt for current energy supplies to be a debt.” He recommended that energy workers apply to the arbitration court if they believe that BGES owes them for energy already consumed.
While the issue of transferring the sales function from Altaienergo to Barnaul City Electricity Network is being resolved in court, the question of which receipts consumers will have to pay for electricity from September 1 remains open. The heads of both companies have already officially presented their rights to exercise this function. However, both sides promise not yet to apply penalties to those consumers who “leave” to the opponent.
“We have legal entities that have not yet terminated the contract with us, despite the fact that since 2001 they have been forced to pay Altaienergo. This can be regarded as a fact that the organization, having entered into an agreement, did not pay for electricity for a long time. There are also those who have already concluded energy supply agreements with power engineers. It turns out that they generally use energy without concluding an agreement with an energy sales organization. We will offer them to renew contracts with us. It would be wrong for consumers to persist. Theoretically, we will have every right to disconnect such consumers from the energy supply,” warned Dmitry Heifman. However, he made a reservation that Barnaul City Electric Network is not yet going to start using such measures. At least until the regional arbitration court makes a decision on the merits of the BGES claim.
ELENA MOROZOVA

Kommersant (Novosibirsk) No. 161 dated 01.09.2004, p. 16

Energy and network companies share Barnaul subscribers