Viktor Karankevich: "The tasks set for the industry must be fully implemented"

On August 26, 2022, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Belarus Viktor Karankevich, a meeting of the collegium of the Ministry was held, which considered the results of the work of organizations in the industry in the first half of this year.

“The work of the fuel and energy complex is projected onto almost all spheres of society’s life, so we, for our part, must have a clear algorithm for prompt response to any external factors, including a chain of interrelated measures to ensure the sustainable operation of our enterprises,” said the head of the Ministry of Energy.

The tasks set for the industry must be fully implemented, Viktor Karankevich emphasized. These tasks remain unchanged: reliable and uninterrupted power supply to consumers, increasing the country's energy self-sufficiency by diversifying fuel and energy resources, increasing the use of local fuels, reducing dependence on hydrocarbon raw materials, further implementing measures to integrate the nuclear power plant into the country's economy, as well as creating conditions to increase power consumption by the real sector of the economy and the population.

An important condition for their achievement is local discipline. “Everyone in his place must do his job qualitatively. The main thing is to increase the efficiency of enterprises, maximize cost optimization,” the Minister said.

He paid special attention to the need to organize effective work on investment projects. “A continuous process of implementing investment projects should be organized. This includes the supply of equipment, and the implementation of construction and installation works - there are no trifles here,” the head of the department emphasized.

Separately, he dwelled on the issues of import substitution. The industry organizations have been tasked with working more actively in this direction, including in terms of mastering new types of products.

Under special control in the Ministry is the development of allocated budget funds. “Assignments are brought under personal responsibility. The selection of budgetary funds should be provided in full - this applies to both the state programs “Housing Construction” and “Comfortable Housing and Favorable Environment”, and the state investment program,” Viktor Karankevich set the task.

As part of the board meeting, Deputy Minister of Energy Mikhail Mikhadyuk informed about the implementation of investment projects in the first half of 2022. In particular, during the reporting period, a turbine unit with a capacity of 115 MW was put into operation at the Minsk CHPP-3, work continues on the construction of peak-backup energy sources, 220 kV Stolbtsy, 110 kV Brest-Zapadnaya, Dubrova, Cherkasy substations , reconstruction of the 110 kV substation "North-West", "Auls", etc.

In January-June 2022, 660 km of power transmission lines with a voltage of 0.4-110 kV were built and reconstructed in the country, work was completed to replace and build 77 km of heating networks. Since the beginning of the year, 359 km of gas pipelines of various categories have been put into operation, 10 km of high and medium pressure gas pipelines have been built, more than 6.6 thousand apartments have been gasified with natural gas, more than 1.7 thousand apartments have been converted to natural gas from liquefied gas.

In turn, Deputy Minister of Energy Olga Prudnikova noted that during the reporting period, the peat enterprises of the Beltopgaz State Production Association produced more than 400 thousand tons of peat products of the fuel group. "The production of peat products is increasing, today it is at the peak of consumption - a favorable situation is developing both for the sale of such products within the country and abroad," she stated.

In his speech, Deputy Minister Sergey Reentovich drew attention to the need to fulfill the main indicators of business plans for the development of industry organizations, including ensuring break-even work, reducing costs, and outpacing the growth rate of labor productivity over the growth rate of wages.