Russia mulls raising household payments for connection to grids

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (PRIME) -- The Russian Energy Ministry has suggested raising payments for technological connection to the power grids for the people who do not receive welfare benefits, Deputy Minister Anastasiya Bondarenko said on Thursday.

The price should be raised to 1,000 rubles for the entire connection for the welfare beneficiaries and to 5,000 rubles per 1 kilowatt (kW) for the other people from the current 550 rubles for the devices with capacity below 15 kilowatts, she said at a meeting of the budget and financial markets committee of the parliament’s upper chamber Federation Council.

“If we speak about the increase to 5,000 rubles, it will affect only the people who are not welfare beneficiaries. For them, the cost of connection should amount to 5,000 rubles per 1 kW. This is the structure of the government ruling that we plan to submit for public discussion next Monday, and it will pass all the procedures,” she said.

The government is currently discussing amendments to the mechanism of subsidized technological connection for the devices with capacity below 150 kW, which would affect the small and medium-sized businesses.

The Energy Ministry says that revenue shortfalls of power grid companies from subsidized connections amounted to 123 billion rubles over the past 10 years as part of spending on infrastructure and it not compensated by the power transmission tariff.

(74.8015 rubles – U.S. $1)

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