12:11 22.03.2019

Water supply companies state critical situation with supply of power, ask NSDC, govt to interfere

2 min read
Water supply companies state critical situation with supply of power, ask NSDC, govt to interfere

 The UkrVodokanalEkologia association has said that the critical situation could be seen after the disconnection of some water supply companies from power supplies by state-owned enterprise Ukrinterenergo from April 1, 2019 and has called on the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) and the Cabinet of Ministers to interfere.

Vice-President of the Association UkrVodokanalEkologia Olha Babiy said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine that at present more than 30 water supply companies, which are clients of Ukrinterenergo, could be disconnected from electricity supply (due to debts for consumed electricity). The government authorized Ukrinterenergo to act as the supplier of last resort. The most critical situation is with municipal enterprise Voda Donbasu (Donetsk region) and municipal enterprise Aulsky Vodovod (Dnipropetrovsk region), which totally supply water to some 5 million of people.

"We demand that the NSDC [meeting] on this issue be convened as a matter of urgency, and also given the position of the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Commission [the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER)] on how the enterprises that now consume electricity from the supplier of last resort should act [if they are disconnected from electricity]," Babiy said.

She recalled that one of the main reasons for which enterprises had large amounts of debt, both to the previous supplier and to the supplier of last resort was the delayed display of electricity prices in the tariffs for their services.

Babiy expressed the opinion that among the priority measures that should be taken to resolve the situation: urgent changes to the law on the electricity market regarding the extension of the period during which the supplier of last resort should provide services to clients, as well as setting economically viable tariffs for water supply companies by the NCER.

The association also said that a number of water supply companies that had previously received electricity from the supplier of last resort, were able to temporarily solve the problem with the help of local authorities and prevent their disconnection from April 1. At the same time, if their tariffs are not reviewed by the regulator in the near future, the debt of water supply companies to electricity suppliers would increase and the situation would worsen.

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