Nikolai Shulginov held an all-Russian meeting "On the results of passing the heating season 2021-2022 by the entities of the electric power industry and housing and communal services"
The minister noted that the energy sector withstood all the tests of the past autumn-winter period (AWP), as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, in further work and preparation for the next heating season, energy sector needs to take into account the current economic situation associated with illegitimate sanctions pressure, disruption of production and technological chains, price volatility in the coal market, restrictions on servicing foreign CCGT units, and rising repair costs.
Yevgeny Grabchak in his keynote speech emphasized that the maximum load of the heating season was passed in the normal mode. The accident rate at generation facilities and in networks of 110 kV and above decreased. However, in the distribution grid complex, it increased by 58%, primarily due to an increase in the reliability of reporting. He added that during the autumn-winter period, the fuel reserves created at power plants ensured their reliable operation.
In addition, the Deputy Minister said that this year repair campaign is complicated by the limited supply of imported spare parts and the possibility of attracting service engineers from abroad.
“Work has been organized jointly with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and industry companies to ensure the production and supply of the necessary spare parts and components for foreign equipment. Alternative supply channels are being worked out, logistics will be debugged," the deputy head of the Ministry of Energy specified.
Evgeny Grabchak reminded energy companies of the need to actively use special stabilization measures in preparation for the next AWP, including the possibility of carrying out repairs according to technical condition, switching to long-term contracts with producers of primary fuel and energy resources.
Also at the meeting, special attention was paid to simplifying the procedure for consolidating territorial grid organizations in accordance with the instruction of the President. In addition to the development of regulatory legal acts, to fulfill this task, meetings were held with all 85 regional headquarters, at which the procedure for consolidating networks and plans for the transfer of ownerless objects were determined.
In conclusion, Nikolai Shulginov set a number of tasks to be jointly solved in the near future by the authorities and the industry community.
Thus, the Ministry of Energy plans to hold meetings on the timing of competitive power take-off and the implementation of TPP modernization projects, including those using innovative gas turbines. For the latter, there are currently risks of shifting deadlines, which requires a separate discussion with the relevant departments, energy companies and suppliers, the Minister explained.
The minister paid special attention to the consequences of sanctions pressure from unfriendly countries, in particular, the possible difficulties that energy companies may face when carrying out repairs of foreign-made equipment.
“In order to reduce risks, it is proposed to minimize the likelihood of including a number of facilities with imported equipment by lowering the selection priority and keeping these facilities in a cold reserve. At the same time, this does not completely exclude their use in work - if necessary, they will be included and used. We are implementing such a design and plan that it will operate for 2 years,” added the head of the Ministry of Energy.
He clarified that with this approach, one cannot talk about maintaining the full payment for the capacity of generation facilities - for facilities whose participation in the work was limited, the reduction in capacity payment could be up to 10%.
“The Ministry has begun implementing an approach to differentiate payment for capacity depending on the demand for equipment. A number of vendors are now submitting applications to the Selection of the Composition of the Included Generating Equipment (SCIGE) signaling their unwillingness to be included. For such cases, we will also reduce the payment for capacity,” commented Nikolay Shulginov.
The head of the Ministry of Energy also reminded the meeting participants of the importance of complying with the government directive on purchasing coal directly from producers, bypassing intermediaries, in order to ensure the stability of supplies and prices.
“At a meeting with coal producers, we agreed that in the near future, together with the Federal Antimonopoly Service, we will send recommended prices to consumers and producers of coal fuel. Coal producers agree with this idea, they understand the current circumstances,” the Minister said.
In addition, Nikolai Shulginov urged large energy companies to pay attention to the Sectoral Tariff Agreement in the electric power industry of the Russian Federation.
“Today, the key factor in the reliability and safety of the operation of the power and heat supply system is still people, our employees. Preserving jobs and timely indexation of wages, maintaining social stability in teams are the most important tasks in today's crisis. However, many large energy companies remain on the sidelines of this issue. The Ministry of Energy is interested in expanding the range of companies participating in the agreement,” the Minister concluded.