Consumers face double payments for electricity

From February 1, in six Russian regions, consumers will have to pay for electricity not to the usual energy retailer, but to the electric grid company. The Ministry of Energy and the Market Council decided to remove from the market the sales outlets of the Energostream holding that had accumulated huge debts. But it will be difficult to quickly replace it. Consumers risk receiving double payments - both from previous and new sales, and the companies themselves have already appealed the decisions of regulators in the courts.

Starting today, the guaranteeing supplier of electricity (GP, the key energy supply company in the region, working with the population and the majority of industrial consumers) must change in six constituent entities of the federation. The former state enterprises, which were kicked out of the wholesale electricity market (WEM) by the supervisory board of the NP Market Council in January due to debts, should be temporarily replaced by subsidiaries of the state distribution grid Holding IDGC (see Kommersant on January 24). Orders of the Ministry of Energy, issued on January 24, stipulate that from February 1, Omskenergosbyt will replace IDGC of Siberia, Ivenergosbyt - IDGC of Center and Volga Region, Penzaenergosbyt - IDGC of Volga, and Orelenergosbyt, Kurskregionenergosbyt " and "Bryanskenergosbyt" - "IDGC of Center". The networks will receive energy sales functions for a maximum of a year - until a competition is held for the status of a state enterprise (see Kommersant of January 25).

All these state enterprises were controlled by the largest private energy sales holding Energostream, but in 2012 a conflict arose between the holding’s shareholders (see also p. 4). Now Energostream LLC, owned by Valery and Andrey Shandalov, and Energostream Management Company, Yuri Zhelyabovsky, the former general director of the holding, are arguing for control over these sales. According to Kommersant, of the six state enterprises that have lost access to the wholesale electricity market, Energostream LLC controls Orelenergosbyt and Omskenergosbyt, the rest are managed by the structures of Mr. Zhelyabovsky.

For January 2013, consumers must pay for previous sales. At midnight on February 1, according to the resolutions of regional tariff regulators, consumers must take meter readings and submit them to local IDGCs, with which energy supply contracts should be concluded by the end of February - the end of March.

But consumer transfer may face a number of challenges. Firstly, there is a risk of double payments - from the previous state enterprise and from IDGCs. A similar situation has already arisen in the post-reform energy sector: at the beginning of 2009 in Moscow there was an attempt to create competition between energy sales in two districts of the city. After the appearance of double payments, the experiment was curtailed, and sales and the Federal Antimonopoly Service took a long time to sort it out in the courts. The head of Omskenergo (a branch of IDGC of Siberia in the Omsk region) Sergei Modenov called on consumers to be careful when paying bills for February, allowing for the possibility of “provocations on the part of the owners of Omskenergosbyt.”

Secondly, all the “disenfranchised” salespeople have already challenged the actions of the Market Council in court. Two of them - Kurskregionenergosbyt and Penzaenergosbyt - managed to obtain interim measures in the form of suspending the entry into force or suspension of the decision of the supervisory board of the Market Council. The Energostream Management Company believes that now “the Market Council cannot transfer anything to the networks; sales will continue to operate in the status of a state enterprise until the court decides otherwise.” In addition, the company says that “the networks, knowing that they are not able to perform the function of a GP, are asking sales to enter into agency agreements for fundraising, which will also take place on the GP’s accounts.” Even in the absence of interim measures, the transfer of consumers takes at least three months for legal entities, and the transfer of the population will take up to six months, believe the Energostream Management Company.

But the Market Council explained to Kommersant that sales are deprived of their state-owned enterprise status from the date specified in the publication of the order of the Ministry of Energy. Therefore, the suspension of the entry into force of the decision of the supervisory board does not allow SEs deprived of the status of a WECM participant to continue operating after February 1 and does not prevent the SE from changing to a network organization. “The decision to deprive the status of a state enterprise was made on the basis of decisions of the supervisory board of the Market Council, orders of the Ministry of Energy and decisions of ATS OJSC (organizer of trading on the Wholesale Electric Energy Market. - Kommersant ), - Deputy Head of the Ministry of Energy Mikhail Kurbatov told Kommersant. - It cannot be suspended. , can only be overturned through a civil process. As of February 1, consumers must pay the new GP.” In addition, the Deputy Minister assured, “according to the information available to the Ministry of Energy, the claims are in the process of being withdrawn.”

“In our opinion, suspending the decision of the Market Council no longer gives anything, since it does not automatically suspend the orders of the Ministry of Energy,” agrees the lawyer of the current State Enterprise. “It was necessary to simultaneously challenge and suspend the orders of the Ministry of Energy.” But he notes that if the decisions of the supervisory board are declared invalid, the orders of the Ministry of Energy will also most likely be invalidated if they are appealed.

Natalya Skorlygina, Vladimir Dzaguto

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