07 February 2016, 22:41 / Business

Rosseti was offered offset

Heads of the largest energy companies propose to offset debts to them against payment for electricity transmission Ivan Peschinsky Energy companies switch to mutual offsets / D. Abramov / Vedomosti

We agreed to develop new approaches in relationships, but so far we have not been heard,” Oleg Budargin, general director of Rosseti, complained in mid-January (quoted by TASS). According to Budargin, Rosseti offered sales companies to restructure more than 130 billion rubles. debt for electricity transmission.

The sales companies really didn’t listen to the head of Rosseti. “This information [about Budargin’s proposal] is surprising, since no official initiatives of this kind have been received from Rosseti to our companies,” the general director of Gazprom Energoholding Denis Fedorov, Inter RAO Boris Kovalchuk wrote to Budargin on February 4, “ Rosenergoatom Andrey Petrov and T Plus Boris Vainzikher (Vedomosti has a copy of the letter). But sales companies managed by Gazprom Energoholding, Inter RAO, Rosenergoatom, T Plus and RusHydro (the signature of its CEO Nikolai Shulginov is not on the letter) occupy about 44% of the market, the authors of the letter emphasize. Representatives of the companies confirmed the sending of the letter. A representative of Rosseti confirmed that the letter had been received.

Caucasian debt

RUB 32 billion – this is how much the North Caucasian sales structures of Rosseti owe for electricity as of January 1, 95% of the amount is overdue debt

In December, Rosseti management met with representatives of guaranteeing suppliers and energy sales companies to discuss debt restructuring, but there were no counter-movements, says Rosseti representative Dmitry Bobkov. It is strange that the meeting participants did not notify their shareholders about the negotiations and proposals of Rosseti, he is surprised. Bobkov did not disclose the essence of the network company’s proposal for restructuring.

The leaders of Gazprom Energoholding, Inter RAO, Rosenergoatom and T Plus, however, have their own restructuring plan: offset their debts for electricity transmission (12.4 billion rubles) to compensate for losses of electricity during transportation ( 19.4 billion rubles, 60% of the payment is overdue), as well as to pay part of the debts of guaranteeing suppliers of the North Caucasus (in the region this function is assigned to the structures of Rosseti). The general directors propose to take into account debts for electricity transmission to pay off the debts of North Caucasian sales companies until the latter's debts are fully repaid.

Rosseti is ready to consider any proposals, the representative says. But the total debts of the companies whose managers wrote a letter to Budargin are 22.6 billion rubles, and Rosseti owes only 1.4 billion rubles for losses, he emphasizes. The reason for the discrepancy in assessments, according to him, is the non-transparent activities of guaranteeing suppliers. Sales companies do not have a single database of subscribers with information on the quantity and cost of supplied electricity, and there is no information about the status of payments and debts, he lists. A solution to the problem of non-payments would be the introduction of prepayment for electricity transmission, says Bobkov: after all, generating companies and suppliers of last resort receive an advance payment.