Russian power consumers against paying for power grid reserves

MOSCOW, Aug 12 (PRIME) -- Russian power consumers are against the government’s draft ruling that obliges industrial consumers to pay for reserves of power grid capacities, the association of energy consumers said in a letter sent to Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov on Wednesday.

Currently, companies and households pay only for the grid capacities they use, but grid companies also have to pay for grids and substations in downtime or operate at partial capacity. The government is discussing a suggestion to transfer the payments to industrial consumers.

“Taking … into account the importance and relevancy of the problem of growing power payments for the development of the national industry and export potential of the Russian economy, and taking into account the current conditions of the new coronavirus infection spread we think that approval of the draft ruling is unreasonable, and we suggest that you cancel its further development,” the letter, a copy of which PRIME has, read.

For instance, if the payment is introduced, payments for the grid services for aluminum giant RUSAL will increase by 3.35 billion rubles per year 2025, of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works by 2.13 billion rubles a year in 2024, of steelmaker Severstal will rise by 2.9 billion rubles a year after 2025, and costs of gas giant Gazprom will grow by 4 billion rubles a year.

“Possible contraction of tax contributions from the corporate profit tax if an array of regulatory acts, which require payment for the maximum reserved capacities are approved may reach 76 billion rubles per year,” the association said.

(73.1522 rubles – U.S. $1)

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