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Mordor: Crypto scam will be used as reason to hike prices for electricity
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Consumption of the residential sector is growing rapidly across the country as well. For the second year in a row, the population has been increasing electricity consumption by an average of 4–6%, says a Kommersant source familiar with the statistics. Moreover, the share of the category with consumption over 600 kWh per month is about 40% of the total.

    According to Rosseti, the consumption of the population is growing by 5% for the second year in a row: in 2020, the supply rate was 111 billion kWh, in 2021, 117 billion kWh is expected.

    The main complaint of power engineers against illegal miners is the payment of electricity at low tariffs set for the population. Numerous complaints from market participants forced regulators to return to the long-standing and sensitive problem of the industry - cross-subsidization (when businesses compensate for the reduced tariffs of the population). The amount of the subsidy is growing every year. In 2019-2020, businesses paid extra 237 billion rubles for the population, and in 2021 the figure will already reach 241 billion rubles, Kommersant was told in the Market Council (regulator of energy markets). And now the industry is subsidizing not only citizens, but also the very lucrative production of cryptocurrency.

    But it is not easy for regulators to decide on such reforms: any form of increase or some kind of restriction of energy tariffs for the population causes serious social tension. Moreover, "farming" is not developing in the richest regions.

    As a result, the Ministry of Energy says that the decision to differentiate tariffs for the population "refers to socio-economic policy" and should be made at the government level. Now they are talking about a compromise: increased tariffs for volumes "beyond reasonable for household consumption," say the Council of Energy Producers.

    Nice.

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  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    The most sensitive issue is how much the minimum concessional consumption will be set by the regions. According to the document, the tariff authorities of the regions should be guided by the "methodological instructions" of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. However, there is no methodology yet, it will be developed within two months. According to Kommersant's sources, the volume of concessional consumption is likely to be higher than the previously discussed parameters. So, in 2018, the government proposed to establish a social norm at the level of up to 300 kW • h per month, then it was proposed to increase the tariff, and if the consumption of more than 500 kW • h is to be set at an economically feasible level. For comparison: now, in apartment buildings and the private sector, the share of the category of consumers with a consumption of more than 600 kWh per month is about 40% of the total, according to Kommersant's data.

    As Kommersant reported on December 17, the FAS was preparing new rules for tariff regulation for the residential sector. The reason for the changes was the complaints of power engineers and the Governor of the Irkutsk Region Igor Kobzev about the rapid development of cryptocurrency mining farms, which disguise themselves as residential buildings and buy electricity at low tariffs of the population (the tariff in the region is 0.86 rubles per 1 kW • h at average tariffs population in the Russian Federation at 4.25 rubles).

    The adopted resolution, the FAS told Kommersant, expands the tariff menu for the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and provides the head of the region, if necessary, "to suppress abuse by consumers who use the established preferential electricity tariffs." The service said that at the same time, tariffs for the population will not increase and "will be set taking into account the forecast of socio-economic development and existing measures of social support for citizens."

    The Energy Ministry told Kommersant that this amendment gave the head of the region the right to respond to abuse by consumers using preferential tariffs.

    Vladimir Sklyar from VTB Capital believes that it would be logical to set the regulated tariff rate at the level of average household consumption. According to the analyst, in 2020 the average consumption of households in the Russian Federation was about 250 kWh per month. “For a significant reduction in cross-subsidization, it is required to set a rate at a level at which socially vulnerable segments of the population will fall under a significant increase in tariffs. And their guaranteed protection deprives the differentiation in terms of volume of any sense from the point of view of reducing cross-subsidization, ”says Sergei Sasim from the Institute of Economics and Regulation of Infrastructure Industries, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

    To make things short - normal family will pay up to 3x more in 2022 compared to 2021.

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