By KYIV. Oct 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Public service obligations (PSO) to provide the population with affordable electricity, which expire on October 31, will be extended with the participation of Energoatom and PrJSC Ukrhydroenergo, but, probably, partial budget support will also be provided and the financial burden on these companies will be reduced with the purpose of preventing their unprofitable work as a result of their implementation of the PSO, Yuriy Boiko, adviser to the Prime Minister, said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, he noted that such a decision is considered, first of all, taking into account the fact that Energoatom, which is the main PSO executor, due to a significant decrease in electricity production due to the shutdown of the occupied Zaporizhia NPP, cannot adequately compensate for the difference between market prices for electricity and tariffs for the population.
"As a result of a significant decrease in the volume of marketable products, primarily by Energoatom, it is quite difficult for it to effectively fulfill these special obligations, and in order to balance the economy of these two enterprises [Energoatom and Ukrhydroenergo], the option of partial budgetary compensation is being considered in order to reduce the burden on both companies to an economically acceptable level," Boiko described the situation.
According to him, the amount of such compensation for the current autumn-winter period can be up to UAH 10 billion.
At the same time, the adviser to the Prime Minister explained that in the PSO model under consideration, compensation will not be sent to generators, but directly to Guaranteed Buyer State Enterprise, which will finance the purchase of electricity by universal service providers on the market for further sale to the population at fixed rates.
He also drew attention to the fact that legislation provides for budgetary compensation for companies fulfilling special obligations.
At the same time, the adviser to the Prime Minister expressed the opinion that it would not be advisable to expand the list of PSO participants by private companies. (Earlier, market participants, in informal comments to the agency, told about the plans of the Ministry of Energy to assign the PSO for providing the population with electricity to thermal generation, including DTEK.)
According to him, in the case of state-owned companies, the situation looks to some extent easier, because they can wait until the period when the state can afford such compensation. At the same time, the decision on partial budgetary compensation, which is planned to be taken now, is caused by the need to prevent unprofitable activities of state generation, Boiko added.
