Ukraine is preparing to ban Russian electricity
Ukraine has resumed importing Russian electricity at certain hours amid frosts and a shortage of coal for thermal power plants, but experts say that this measure is temporary, and in the future Kyiv will completely impose a ban on electricity from the Russian Federation.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, Kommersant writes.
“On Monday, February 1, Ukrainian consumers planned to purchase from the Russian Federation in the amount of up to 1 million kWh within six hours at intervals, according to the ENTSO-E (Unified Energy System of Europe) website. Inter RAO (Russian export-import operator) confirmed the start of commercial supplies to Ukraine “in test mode on a competitive basis with prepayment.” The supply volumes are currently insignificant, the holding noted,” the article notes.
At the same time, Ukraine periodically introduces and then lifts a ban on the import of electricity from Russia. Deliveries first stopped in 2015, but were restored again for several months in 2019. In mid-December 2020, the Ukrainian state energy regulator again received the right to trade with Russia and Belarus.
At the moment, the amount of supply from the Russian Federation is insignificant - about 1% of peak consumption in Ukraine, says Sergei Rozhenko, deputy director of the practice for working with companies in the energy and utilities sector at KPMG in Russia and the CIS.
The publication also draws attention to the fact that in December 2020, a bill was introduced to the Verkhovna Rada, which “in order to ensure energy independence” may give the state regulator the right to limit the available transmission capacity with the Russian Federation and Belarus until the end of this year.
According to ACRA expert Maxim Khudalov, such restrictions may be beneficial to the Ukrainian energy holding DTEK, which belongs to the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, who owns almost all coal-fired thermal power plants in Ukraine.
“The ban on supplies from Russia will allow the country’s more expensive coal power units to be loaded, and will also enable the holding to demand higher tariffs amid a shortage,” says Khudalov.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.