The Russian Energy Ministry has called for maintaining the current arrangement for supplying electricity to Crimea, as provided in current agreements, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told journalists.
“We believe that the electricity supply arrangement that has existed
since Soviet times should work in synchronized mode as we in fact do it
with many countries, including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and
Azerbaijan,” Novak said. “For that reason, we reckon that the
arrangement for electricity supplies should be preserved, based on
contracts, on payment for the electricity supplied,” he said.
Russia and Crimea are not engaged in separating the latter from the
Ukrainian grid. “I want to refute that. No such work is being
conducted,” he said.
But he acknowledged that the Russian side is drawing up electricity
supply alternatives. “Definitely, we are working on the issue of
reducing risks, in case emergencies arise, for ensuring autonomous power
sources to the Crimean Peninsula, in order to raise reliability. But
this is in case of any situations,” he said.
Crimea is currently supplied with electricity as normal, without any
outages, he said. “Payment for the electricity supplied is being made in
full. There is no receivable debt. Therefore, at present there is no
basis for imposing any limitations,” he said.
That applies to natural gas and heat as well as electricity, he said,
adding that the Energy Ministry intends in future to present its
proposals on improving the reliability of supplies of those commodities
to Crimea.
