Today, the government of St. Petersburg plans to consider the target program “Construction and reconstruction of thermal power facilities located in the Admiralty and Central districts of St. Petersburg for the period up to 2025.”

According to the program (Vedomosti has a copy), Gazprom’s “granddaughter” Petersburgteploenergo must invest 5.375 billion rubles in the modernization of the heating system of two city districts by 2015.

Of the 144 boiler houses leased to Petersburgteploenergo last year, 12 have already been modernized at the expense of the city budget in 2009-2010, two are subject to closure, the program says. In place of the remaining 130 boiler houses, 87 new ones should appear. The total capacity will increase by 20%, or 85 MW.

The city administration, in turn, will compensate the investor's expenses from the budget for 12 years - from 2012 to 2025. The investor improves the infrastructure belonging to the city administration, so he should receive compensation for this from the budget, explains the Smolny official. According to him, the advantage of the scheme is that the city receives new boiler houses, but pays for them in installments, and not all at once.

This scheme has already been tested by Petersburgteploenergo, says the company's CEO Sergei Gustov. Since 2005, it has already reconstructed boiler houses in the Petrogradsky and Kurortny districts, and this year it is completing the modernization of the heating system in the Petrodvortsovy district. In total, the company has invested more than 15 billion rubles in heating networks.

Petersburgteploenergo won the tender for the right to reconstruct and manage the heating system of the Admiralty and Central Districts in August last year. The company offered a minimum rental fee for the assets of 720,000 rubles per month, but promised to complete the modernization a month earlier than its only competitor, the subsidiary of TGK-1, Teploset Sankt-Peterburga: in 4 years and 11 months. According to the terms of the tender, the winner must invest at least 2.5 billion rubles in the leased facilities.

Most of the boiler houses in these areas are unprofitable, says a source at the State Unitary Enterprise "Fuel and Energy Complex of St. Petersburg" (GUP TEK SPb). According to him, the cost of generating 1 Gcal in the city center is about 2,400 rubles, while the tariff is about 1,200 rubles, the rest is compensated from the city budget.

Taking into account the need to relocate pipelines, a sum of more than 5 billion rubles is adequate, one of the St. Petersburg power engineers believes. According to him, the city authorities could make thermal assets more attractive to investors if they did not hold back tariffs. Under the current conditions, only Gazprom can invest in this infrastructure, he believes.

Modernization in installments