Businesses will not be left with a network reserve

As Kommersant found out, the head of Rosseti, Andrei Ryumin, asked President Vladimir Putin to force new large customers to pay for electricity transmission services not according to consumption, but according to the maximum power declared when connecting to the network. The take-or-pay principle, Rosseti believes, will curb the growth of tariffs. The President agreed, and now the issue is being studied by the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Economy and the Federal Antimonopoly Service. Large businesses criticize the idea, not wanting to pay for services not provided, especially in the current economic conditions. Network companies are also to blame for the low load on power grids, analysts say, suggesting measures should be taken to improve their efficiency.

The head of the state holding Rosseti, Andrei Ryumin, appealed to President Vladimir Putin with a request to help the company solve the eternal problem of underutilization of electrical grid capacities. Mr. Ryumin, in a letter reviewed by Kommersant, drew the president’s attention to new large consumers of electricity (at least 670 kW), who “use only 20–30% of the connected power” and pay only for the volume of actual consumption. To prevent capacity from being idle, the general director of Rosseti proposed transferring new clients “to pay for services based on the maximum capacity declared when making a technological connection (TP) to the power grid.” In essence, we are talking about transferring new consumers to pay for services on the take-or-pay principle.

Vladimir Putin supported the initiative. “I agree,” the president wrote on August 17. “Please report.” He signed a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. On August 28, Mr. Novak instructed the Ministry of Energy, together with the Ministry of Economy and the Federal Antimonopoly Service, to “ensure the execution of the president’s instructions on payment for electricity transmission services and submit agreed proposals to the government of the Russian Federation in the prescribed manner.” Deadline: September 4.

Rosseti confirmed that the letter had been sent, noting that the order was with the government. “The main objective of the initiative is to encourage consumers to declare really necessary capacities that will actually be in demand,” the company says. “This will optimize the volume of construction and reconstruction of the network.” The measure will lead to curbing tariff growth, Rosseti believes.

The head of the Ministry of Energy, Nikolai Shulginov, told Kommersant that he supports Rosseti’s initiative: “This will lead to optimization of costs for the formation of infrastructure projects and a reduction in redundant solutions for connecting to power grids.” The FAS and the Ministry of Economy did not respond to Kommersant.

Rosseti and the Ministry of Energy have been discussing the topic of payment for unused reserve power grid capacity for many years, but each time the discussion drags on. Mr. Ryumin writes in a letter to the president that in 2013–2022, Rosseti carried out the transfer of more than 125 GW of power for new consumers, but the lion’s share is not used. “The costs of maintaining and operating facilities built as a result of the TP are taken into account in the tariff for electricity transmission services for all consumers,” notes the author of the letter. According to Mr. Ryumin, the take-or-pay principle will help to create a “responsible attitude of consumers towards the maximum power value declared when implementing technological transfers.”

Big business opposes the initiative. “The desire of the infrastructure to receive payment for services not provided is understandable, but it does not meet the interests of consumers and does not fit well with the authorities’ intention to develop the economy,” the Energy Consumers Community told Kommersant. “Paying for the transmission of electricity at the maximum declared capacity destroys the very idea of ​​​​a unified energy system and the market – the opportunity to obtain the necessary power at a reasonable price. In addition, it erases for large consumers the difference between connecting to the UES and building their own generation.”

Underutilization of electric grid capacities, not determined by technical reliability requirements, indicates the ineffectiveness of the investment resource spent on the construction of such facilities, says Sergei Sasim, director of the Center for Electric Power Research at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. The problem needs to be solved, but this is often due to errors in planning the development of the electric grid infrastructure and inconsistency between the investment programs of electric grid organizations and regional development plans, the analyst believes. The struggle to increase the load on network assets should take into account not only stimulating consumers, but also motivating the networks themselves not to build unnecessary things. For example, it would be possible to withdraw funds from the required gross revenue aimed at maintaining unloaded power grid assets, the construction of which was not associated with consumers overestimating requests for technological connections, the analyst believes.

He reminds that for some consumers the maximum declared power and actual consumption do not coincide due to the technological specifics of the work, including the need to ensure fire safety. The load schedule of housing and communal services enterprises, in particular water supply and sanitation enterprises, may also provide for significant deviations in actual consumption and maximum connected capacity.

Tatiana Dyatel, Polina Smertina