KYIV, Apr. 3 (Ukrainian News) – The National Electricity Regulation Commission has declined to compensate Energoatom for funds the company failed to receive due to new changes in the procedure for distributing funds from Energorynok, NERC said in a statement issued on Monday.
NERC declined to compensate Energoatom on March 26, when it cancelled an earlier, March 19 resolution approving the compensation.
Between March 14 and 30, NERC increased payments from Energorynok to Energoatom by Hr 3.5 million daily as compensation for losses caused in January of this year, when the commission temporarily increased assignations to generating companies at Energoatom’s expense.
NERC increased the assignations to thermal power stations due to a coal and gas shortage. However, by mid-February the power stations again began accumulating coal reserves.
NERC did not say how much money Energoatom received while the compensation was in effect, nor has it said whether the company will be obligated to return the funds.
A source in NERC told Ukrainian News that the decision to stop the compensation for Energoatom was approved in line with an order from one of the deputy prime ministers and an appeal by the Fuel and Energy Ministry.
Energoatom earlier complained it was experiencing a shortage of funds to purchase fresh nuclear fuel because of the periodic states of emergency introduced on the energy market. During these periods, the money earned by Energoatom was transferred to other generating companies.
On March 14, the Cabinet of Ministers cancelled Energoatom’s right to sell electricity futures contracts, which served as its main source of financing to buy fresh nuclear fuel for nuclear power stations.
In 2000, nuclear stations produced 45 percent of all electricity generated in Ukraine.
