Six Energostream electricity firms stripped of supplier of last resort status
MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - The supervisory board of NP Market Council on Wednesday stripped six retail companies of the Energostream group of their status as electricity suppliers of last resort. There were seven Energostream companies with this status.
Omskenergosbyt , Oryolenergosbyt , Ivenergosbyt , Penzaenergosbyt , Kurskregionenergosbyt and Bryanskenergosbyt lost their status as suppliers of last resort, the Council said in a statement. Volgogradenergosbyt , meanwhile, retained this status.
A power market source told Interfax that the Volgograd company did not lose this status due to the big debt of bankrupt local chemical company OJSC Khimprom, which grids are not prepared to pick up.
The Market Council on Wednesday also gave a number of interregional distribution grid companies the status of wholesale market players, including IDGC Volga ; OJSC IDGC Northwest ; OJSC IDGC North Caucasus ; OJSC IDGC Siberia ; OJSC IDGC Ural ; OJSC IDGC Center ; OJSC IDGC Center & Volga ; and OJSC IDGC South .
As of January 9, debts amounted to 1.99 billion rubles at Omskenergosbyt; 448.2 million rubles at Oryolenergosbyt; 1 billion rubles at Ivenergosbyt; 1.5 billion rubles at Penzaenergosbyt; 1.1 billion rubles at Kurskregionenergosbyt; 1.85 billion rubles at Bryanskenergosbyt; and 4 billion rubles at Volgogradenergosbyt.
Initially, market participants were supposed to strip all seven companies of their status or postpone consideration of this issue. Later it was thought that only three of the companies - Omskenergosbyt, Oryolenergosbyt and Volgogradenergosbyt - would lose their status, because court injunctions had been issued for the other companies. Their debts are supposed to be auctioned off, and if there are no bidders, they will go to grid companies, with Omsk sales going to IDGC Siberia, Volgograd to IDGC South and Oryol to IDGC Center. Last week, IDGC South said it might become of a supplier of last resort instead of Volgogradenergosbyt effective February 1.
At the end of last November, the board of the Market Council gave Volgogradenergysbyt a month to resolve its financial problems because most of its debts consisted of the Khimprom debt. At the same time, the Market Council postponed revoking the status of Omskenergosbyt and Oryolenergosbyt, attributing this decision to the necessity of reviewing the procedure for changing suppliers of last resort, which took more than 150 days.
However, in December the Russian government approved a resolution simplifying the process of replacing suppliers of last resort. Under the changes, if such a supplier needs to be changed, the status is automatically assigned to the regional grid company, and the time period for making the transfer of status has been reduced from 156 to 52 days.
At that time, a number of IDGC were accepted into the Market Council.
A supplier of last resort is a player on the wholesale and retail electricity markets who is obligated to sign a contract with any consumer in its zone of operations who requests one. The activities of suppliers of last resort are regulated by regional authorities and the Federal Tariff Service.