KYIV, Apr. 3 (Ukrainian News) – The National Electricity Regulatory Commission has reduced April assignations from Energorynok to oblenergos that paid for less than 80 percent of their electricity in February, NERC’s public relations head Volodymyr Brynziuk said on Monday.
The commission reduced assignations to the oblenergos, or energy supply companies, for transmitting and supplying electricity in proportion to the level of payment they collected for electricity in February, Brynziuk told Ukrainian News.
The reductions will not apply to seven companies that were affected by the natural disaster in late November of last year after transmission lines fell in many of Ukraine’s regions following icing and freezing cold temperatures.
The unaffected companies are Odesaoblenergo, Vinytsiaoblenergo, Kirovohradoblenergo, Khmelnytskyoblenergo, Mykolaivoblenergo, Cherkasyoblenergo and Zhytommyroblenergo.
NERC believes the reduction in assignations will stimulate oblenergos to increase the level of electricity payments on the market.
In March, assignations were reduced to oblenergos that collected less than 100 percent payment for electricity.
NERC’s new chairman Yury Prodan, appointed in March, has reiterated on several occasions that he plans to toughen the commission’s policies toward non-paying oblenergos, including the increased use of sanctions against them.
According to the Fuel and Energy Ministry, oblenergos paid Energorynok for 66.2 percent of their electricity in February.
