The council of the wholesale electricity market of Ukraine has asked to increase the prices of electricity, provide all funds from the extra charge to the tariff for electricity to the sector, expand the resources of Oschadbank and pay the budget debts for electricity.
The council which functions is the general supervision over the operation of the wholesale electricity market and the fulfillment of the conditions of agreements signed by the market players has sent the relevant address to the Ukrainian president, prime minister and head of the National Commission for State Energy and Public Utilities Regulation after an extraordinary meeting held on Oct. 9 and Oct. 10.
The council pointed at the critical state of enterprise of the fuel and energy complex due to armed hostilities on the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the sharp decline in coal extraction and damage of transport infrastructure. Anthracite coal stocks at warehouses of thermal power plants and combined heat and power plants plunged by almost four times in August-September, to 440,000 tonnes. The 3,690 MW of the capacity of the Ukrainian power grid is not used due to the absence of coal, and another 3,815 MW of the capacity will be able to operate for no more than seven days with the current volume of coal at warehouses.
According to the reports published on Oct. 14, as of Oct. 1, 2014 the debt of Energomarket state enterprise to power producers amounted to Hr 15.6 billion, and the debt of power supply companies to Energomarket and the debt of consumers to power suppliers totaled to some Hr 17 billion, including coalmines financed from the national budget (Hr 6.6 billion) and housing utilities service providers (Hr 5.5 billion).
The council proposed that the National Commission for State Energy and Public Utilities Regulation provided for the level of prices that cover the production cost in full, taking into account the rise in the price of fuel, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) increases the limits for lending by Oschadbank to increase the credit portfolio of Energomarket.
The council said that other measures could be the redirection of the extra charge to the tariff for electricity from the general fund of the national budget to the special fund with the use of the funds for the needs of the sector, including the purchase of coal and restoration of energy facilities destroyed due to armed hostilities.
