St. Petersburg began calculating the social norm of energy consumption

Despite the fact that the experiment to introduce social standards for electricity consumption is being carried out only in six regions of Russia, including St. Petersburg, preparations for this event began in the city in October. A questionnaire required to monitor the volume of electricity consumption by the population in St. Petersburg was posted on the website of the Tariff Committee, which collected 180 responses from respondents in two weeks.

As the Tariff Committee assures, the information obtained through the survey will not have any legal force - the committee needs it only for comparison with the characteristics of other regions
Photo: Valery Melnikov, Kommersant / buy photo

A questionnaire was posted on the official website of the St. Petersburg Tariff Committee - as indicated on the resource, “in preparation for the establishment and application of a social norm for the consumption of electrical energy (power) in accordance with Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated July 22, 2013 N 614.”

It asks to indicate information about the type of house, the type of stove for cooking, the number of citizens actually living in the apartment or house, the type of metering device, as well as information about the volume of annual electrical energy consumption in the apartment, the volume of annual electrical energy consumption for general house needs.

As explained in the Tariff Committee, now all subjects of the federation are preparing to introduce social norms. The information obtained through questionnaires will not have any legal force - the committee needs it for comparison with the characteristics of other regions. The questionnaires were posted on the first of October; According to the committee, 180 questionnaires have now been completed. However, the average indicator has not yet been displayed - the committee promised to do this by the end of the week.

According to Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated July 22, 2013 N 614, since September 2013, a pilot project for the introduction of social standards for the consumption of electrical energy (power) has been implemented in the following regions: Trans-Baikal Territory, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Vladimir Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Oryol Region, Rostov Region. Initially, the Samara region was supposed to participate, but it withdrew from the experiment.

The head of the energy project financing section of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, General Director of the Teplocom holding, Andrei Lipatov, says that since 2009, Federal Law No. 261 “On Energy Saving” has been in force, within the framework of which it is necessary to organize accounting of all resources consumed by the population. "Global accounting of resources is necessary for the state to understand how much can be exported and how much is needed for its own needs. This is due to the limitation of the amount of resources and their cost on the foreign market. Electricity accounting has been carried out since Soviet times, so there are statistics in the regions. With On September 1 of this year, seven regions were supposed to take part in the social experiment, but one of them refused. Social standards are set by regional authorities. Now they differ by more than three times, from 50 kWh per person in the Vladimir region to 190 kWh in the region. Orlovskaya. Moscow, the Moscow region and St. Petersburg are not yet participating in the experiment. But social norms in all regions must be determined before July 1, 2014. This means that if a person uses electricity within the norm, then he pays less for it. goes beyond these limits, then he pays more. So far, none of the regions has gone beyond the norms,” says Mr. Lipatov.

According to him, the idea of a social norm for resources is not new; there is experience in European countries. “True, in Germany, for example, the social norm is the volume of resource 118 kWh per person, subsidized by the state, that is, free for the consumer. Low-income and unemployed citizens can count on the subsidy. In our country, the social norm is the volume paid at a reduced rate , consumption in excess of the standard is paid more. In St. Petersburg, preparations for the experiment have begun. The results of the survey on the tariff committee website will apparently be used to determine the social norm for electricity consumption. In the metropolis, this is more difficult, since we have high social heterogeneity and a large difference in electricity consumption. consumption of resources among people. In total, there are 34 thousand residential buildings in St. Petersburg. In the near future, consumption standards for other resources will be determined: water, gas, heat. In this regard, it is important to have modern metering devices not only in the house, but also in the apartment. this will help determine individual consumption and solve the problem of fair payment,” he says.

According to Dmitry Baranov, a leading expert at Finam Management, in Russia the introduction of a social norm is planned from July 1, 2014, but this issue has not been fully resolved. “This innovation should hardly be perceived only as a way to get a lot of money from the population. On the contrary, this is being done so that, within the framework of these social norms, tariffs are reduced. It is also worth noting that the norms should be established in such a way that they include more 70 percent of the country’s population. It’s hardly worth raising a panic; this is just an experiment, and its outcome is not yet clear. It is possible that not all regions will have positive experience, and the introduction of social norms may be canceled altogether, or the standards will be further developed.” , he says.

Narek Avakyan, an analyst at the financial company AForex, says that such an initiative is quite controversial. “With proper implementation of this measure, it is possible to achieve an increase in the efficiency of electricity use by households and increase revenues from unnecessarily expensive consumers. However, without proper supervision, utility companies will be able to find another reason to increase already high electricity tariffs, and this may increase social tension. Currently, trust in the authorities have already fallen to a minimum since the end of the crisis, but if the opposition has a reason for further criticism, then the ratings may even drop below the critical level of 50 percent,” he says.

According to Investcafe, in 2011 the population of St. Petersburg consumed about 4.1 billion kWh. Given that the average tariff in the city was 2.8 rubles per kWh, these payments amounted to approximately 11.5 billion rubles. In 2012, the average tariff was 2.88 rubles per kWh, but there is currently no data on consumption, therefore, if we take into account that the level of consumption remained approximately at the same level, total payments in 2012 could be about 11.8 billion rubles.

Yulia Chayun

Experiment outside of experiment