Arkhangelsk energy dispute on President’s table
Ilya Mikhalchuk, the governor of Arkhangelsk, in a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev complained about regional power generator TGK-2 and the delayed gasification of regional boilers.
Mikhalchuk in the meeting with the President said that “the TGK-2 is not ready to turn on the gas at the Arkhangelsk Thermal Plant”, although the plant has already been connected with the gas pipeline grid, newspaper Vedomosti writes.
The governor accused the power company of reluctance with the turning of the huge thermal plant, which provides as much as 80 percent of heating to the Arkhangelsk city, from heavy oil (mazut) to gas.
The accusations caused strong reactions from Medvedev, who stressed that the company urgently would need to deal with the situation.
Meanwhile, the TGK-2 maintains that the president has been misinformed by the governor. The Arkhangelsk Thermal Plant will start to use gas from January 2011, in line with an agreement with the Ministry of Energy, the company informs in a press release.
According to TGK-2, the company has spent significant sums on the transformation of the plant. These expenses must now be returned in the form of a tariff increase of one percent on electricity and 13 percent on heating, the company leadership argues. In addition, the company underlines that the city of Arkhangelsk has a energy debt of 1,2 billion RUB to the company.
As reported by BarentsObserver, key parts of Arkhangelsk Oblast has the last couple of years finally been connected with the Russian gas pipeline grid, thus opening up for use of gas and not only mazut in regional boilers. The use of gas is both far cheaper and far cleaner than the use of mazut.
Read also:Gasification comes closer in Arkhangelsk
The relationship between TGK-2, which is one of the main power generators in Northwest Russia, and the Arkhangelsk regional administration has for a longer period of time been on the point of freezing.
