The Ministry of Energy wants to ban industry from building block stations with a capacity of more than 5 MW

Suppliers of block stations for power supply to businesses opposed the idea of ​​the Ministry of Energy to prohibit industry from owning power plants over 5 MW. The ministry’s initiative will lead to the entry of up to 6 GW of local generation into the wholesale energy market. As a result, business expenses for electricity supply, according to industrial consumers, will increase by 100 billion rubles. in year. The Ministry of Energy assures that the load on the energy market will not increase, and the implementation of the initiative will evenly “redistribute” mandatory payments in the price of power between large and small consumers.

Suppliers of block stations criticized the idea of ​​the Ministry of Energy to limit the right of industry to build its own generation. Now a consumer can have a block station for their own power supply with a capacity of up to 25 MW. But the ministry wants all stations over 5 MW to sell electricity and capacity only on the wholesale energy market, that is, to all consumers. The Small Energy Association appealed to the control department of the President of the Russian Federation with a request to abandon this idea, since it would increase the costs of industrial consumers for the purchase of electricity from the general network (“Kommersant saw the organization’s letter dated March 13”).

The Ministry of Energy has been discussing mandatory entry into the wholesale market for generation from 5 MW for several years now. Last year, the ministry added an initiative to the draft action plan on the efficient functioning of the electricity sector. Judging by the document (“Kommersant has seen it”), the goal of the initiative is “to ensure non-discriminatory approaches in the distribution of mandatory surcharges and mechanisms among electricity consumers, as well as electricity transmission services.”

The Ministry of Energy told Kommersant that their initiative “will not in any way increase the total costs of electricity consumers.” The proposed changes could redistribute mandatory payments among consumers, they emphasize.

Currently, large consumers with their own generation are subsidized through the energy market, receiving economic benefits from using a unified energy system and shifting part of the mandatory payments to small and medium-sized consumers. According to the Ministry of Energy, the total volume of retail generation with a capacity of 5–25 MW is about 6 GW.

In addition to the surcharges under the DMP program (about 100 billion rubles in 2024), there are a number of regional surcharges in the price of power: in 2024, the energy market will pay 18 billion rubles. for the supply of electricity at reduced prices to new regions of the Russian Federation, another 29.7 billion rubles for the construction of thermal power plants in the Kaliningrad region and Crimea, as well as 31 billion rubles for reducing electricity prices in the Far East.

The initiative of the Ministry of Energy will “strengthen incentives for consumers to switch to autonomous power supply,” which will “represent the risks of decentralization and collapse of the energy system,” the Small Energy Association said in a letter. According to her estimates, gas piston units are the most efficient way to supply energy: their specific CAPEX is 70–90 thousand rubles. per 1 kW, load – 94%.

According to estimates from the Community of Energy Consumers, the total generation capacity falling under the initiative of the Ministry of Energy is about 4.79 GW (329 power plants in 59 regions).

The total additional burden on consumers if all retail generation facilities are transferred to the wholesale market will be 70–96 billion rubles. per year, of which “payment for electricity transmission services that are not actually provided will amount to about 32 billion rubles,” the association says. The organization believes that the initiative could lead to the closure of small-scale generation and a shortage of energy capacity, which will require the construction of large thermal power plants costing 85–150 billion rubles. in year. The association notes a high risk of negative technological, environmental and social consequences.

Reducing the threshold for retail generation capacity will reduce the economic feasibility of its development, increasing the cost of generation, notes Sergei Sasim, director of the Center for Electric Power Research at the Higher School of Economics: “The initiative will lead to a deterioration in the performance of power plant suppliers and to additional payments for certain categories of consumers. But competitive advantages that rely on deviating from general market rules are rarely long-lasting.”

Polina Smertina