Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has passed draft law No.10571 at first reading on the principles of the operation of Ukraine's electricity market, which suggests the liberalization of the Ukrainian wholesale electricity market.
The draft law, which was prepared by MPs Ihor Hluschenko and Mykola Martynenko, on Tuesday scored 226 votes out of the 271 MPs registered in the session hall.
The most disputable issue in the bill is the creation of a cost disparity settlement fund, which is to exist at the expense of funds to be paid by nuclear and hydropower plants.
According to representatives of the nuclear power industry, the main function of the fund will be to receive fees from power generating companies owned by the state (nuclear power plants, hydroelectric power plants and pumped storage power plants) for use in covering the losses of thermal power generation companies, and which are primarily privately owned, and those of guaranteed suppliers.
The fund is to handle settlements for electricity sold at feed-in tariffs, and compensate for guaranteed suppliers’ losses from the sale of electricity to consumers at regulated prices, as well as the cost of the purchase of electricity generated by thermal power plants and other co-generation electricity plants at regulated prices, and its sale at market prices.
As was reported, the single-buyer market is currently in operation in Ukraine, whereas draft bill No.10571 foresees the implementation of a model of operation under direct agreements on Ukraine’s electricity market, the market of ‘day-ahead’ contracts and a balancing market, which will provide an opportunity to regulate the imbalance that appears during electricity generation. The bill also suggests the creation of a market of additional services for purchases from peaking power plants.
