According to the official web-site of the National Commission of State Regulation in Energy and Communal Services (NCSRECS), on 13 November 2017 there was held a public discussion of the draft resolution on setting tariffs for sale of electricity by Ukrhidroenerho in 2018.
According to this draft, 20 mln UAH are planned to be spent on construction of the Verkhniodnistrovski cascade of hydro power plants and almost 3,5 mln UAH on “Funding measures aimed at informing the public”. It means costs of these measures are to be included into tariffs for sale of energy produced by hydro power plants operated by Ukrhidroenerho.
Excerpt from Investment program of Ukrhidroenerho for 2018
Excerpt from the minutes of public discussion
In fact, hydro energy professionals propose to design hydro power plants on the Dnister and do propaganda of this construction at our expense.
Fortunately, NCSRECS did not agree to the proposal of Ukrhidroenerho and in the course of review proposed to remove from the investment program 20 000 000 UAH for construction of Verkhniodnistrovski cascade of hydro power plants because of lack of relevant calculations.
At present NCSRECS does not have quorum and thus cannot adopt any decisions. However, it is expected that its work will resume as a result of adoption of the law that will allow to appoint temporarily some members of the commission. Therefore, NCSRECS will be able to adopt decisions soon and in particular will be able to approve tariffs for sale of energy by Ukrhidroenerho in 2018.
It is important to mention that local communities and self-governance bodies strongly oppose construction of hydro power plants on the Dnister. Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regional councils and a number of local authorities adopted the decision to ban construction of hydro power plants in their territories. Environmental scientific institutions and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine issued conclusions regarding catastrophic consequences for the environment of the planned construction of hydro power plants etc. We released a detailed description of the situation a year ago in the publication “Who will make profit on destruction of the Dnister?”
We publicly call on NCSRECS demanding not to conform to hydro energy professionals and not to spend payment for electricity on projects that destruct the environment and misuse public funds.
We ask the regulator not to approve the tariff and investment program of Private Joint Stock Company “Ukrhidroenerho” until it removes from these documents costs of construction of hydro power plants on the Dnister and propaganda of Ukrhidroenerho functioning.
For further information please contact:
Petro Testov, EPL environmental scientist
Email: petro.testov@gmail.com
tel.: (032) 225 – 76 -82; (068) 934 – 95 – 74
