Average price of power for industrial consumers in the conditions of the new wholesale market (in all its segments) in the first ten days of its operation grew by 30 percent compared with the wholesale market price in June, Head of national energy company Ukrenergo Vsevolod Kovalchuk has said.
“If we look at the real numbers of the first decade, the rise in prices for industrial consumers is much higher than the previously announced government forecasts at the level of 6.8 percent (we and the regulator predicted it at 40 percent and 42 percent). The actual increase in prices for industrial consumers connected to the Ukrenergo network, or connected to the first class of voltage to the distribution system operators, in the first decade of July is 30 percent. And the trend so far is that this difference will continue to grow, if changes are not made,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on July 11.
Thus, the average price excluding the tariff of the distribution system operator (the average tariff in Ukraine is Hr 378 per MWh), and also excluding the electricity supplier’s margin of Hr 74 per MWh, it was about Hr 2,082 per MWh (excluding VAT), which is 30 percent more than the June price at the level of Hr 1.618 per MWh. This calculated amount is averaged for first and second class consumers.
According to Kovalchuk, the main reason for the significant growth is the wrong model of imposing public service obligations (PSO) on both National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom and PJSC Ukrhydroenergo on the supply of electricity to households, and on Ukrenergo on compensation for the cost of green energy.
“Energoatom, which in previous periods produced the cheapest energy, was completely removed from the market of bilateral contracts for industrial consumers… If Energoatom were in the market and Ukrenergo was not obliged to compensate for green power “growth would be much smaller. One could talk about a price change of a few percent,” he said.
