The law on the functioning of the electricity market of Ukraine, which foresees the liberalization of the wholesale electricity market of the country, will take effect on January 1, 2014, according to the transition clauses of the document published in the Uriadovy Kurier newspaper on December 18, 2013.
Some clauses of the law will take effect later.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on October 24, 2013 adopted a law on
the functioning of the electricity market of Ukraine that foresees the
liberalization of the wholesale electricity market of the country.
At present Ukraine has an energy market with a single buyer, while
the new law foresees the introduction of a model of direct contracts, a
market of contracts “for the next day” and a balancing market, which
will enable imbalances in electricity production to be corrected. It
also assumes the creation of a market of additional services for the
purchase of flexible capacities.
The most contentious issue in the bill is the creation of a fund to
regulate cost imbalances and its filling exclusively at the expense of
funds from nuclear and hydroelectric power plants.
According to representatives of the nuclear industry, the main
function of the fund will be receiving funds from energy generating
companies that are owned by the state (nuclear, hydro and pumped storage
hydro power plants) for their further use to cover losses of thermal
generation, which is mainly privately owned, as well as guaranteed
suppliers.
Payments for electricity sold at feed-in tariffs will be carried out
through the fund, and the losses of guaranteed suppliers will be
reimbursed from the sale of electricity to consumers at regulated rates
and charges from the purchase of electricity generated by combined heat
and power plants and other stations with a combined production of
electricity at regulated prices, and its sale at market prices.
The authors of the document are MPs Ihor Hluschenko and Mykola Martynenko.
