Russia Ministry of Energy: Nikolay Shulginov: “The Ural Federal District shows high rates of preparation for the autumn-winter period”

Nikolay Shulginov chaired a meeting of the Government Commission for Ensuring the Safety of Electricity Supply (federal headquarters) to prepare the subjects of the electric power industry of the Ural Federal District for the heating season of 2021-2022.

During the meeting, the Minister noted the absence of significant risks of disruption of energy supply to consumers in the district.

“In general, in the district, from our point of view, the preparation is proceeding calmly, there are no significant comments, a favorable situation is emerging,” he said.

At the same time, Nikolai Shulginov drew attention to the unreliable operation of individual territorial grid organizations (TGO). According to him, the low efficiency of TSOs that do not approve investment plans from the regulator is paid for by bona fide TSOs, and the regional authorities often do not work to deprive the TSO status and transfer power grid facilities to the maintenance of an organization that ensures reliable operation of facilities, according to the current criteria.

The planned volumes of the repair program by generating companies exceed the indicators of the previous year, however, implementation is lagging behind schedule, preparation for the autumn-winter period is complicated by the consequences of floods and fires, the Minister also said.

The head of the Ministry of Energy added that since the beginning of the year 38 cases of negative impact of forest fires on the operation of power facilities have been recorded in the regions of the Urals. Five of them led to a disruption in the power supply to consumers. Among the regions most affected by forest fires are the Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Tyumen regions.

“Power engineers must restore normal power supply schemes and complete scheduled repairs before winter,” commented Nikolai Shulginov.

One of the issues to which the Ministry of Energy pays special attention is the issue of uninterrupted heat supply. Despite the increase in the volume of capital investments, a fairly high depreciation of the heating network infrastructure remains. The minister stressed that the preparation for the AP in the region is hampered by the existence of arrears for housing and communal services.

Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Utilities of Russia Maxim Egorov, in turn, said that the readiness of housing and communal services and housing stock in the Ural Federal District is more than 93%, separately noted the 100% readiness of objects and housing in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.