Kurskenergo held the first meeting of the Council of Consumers of the company’s services. The expert and collegial body united power engineers, representatives of the regional administration, public organizations, small and medium businesses, and large industrial enterprises. The event was attended by Acting Deputy General Director of IDGC of Centre - Kurskenergo division director Alexander Rudnevsky, Deputy Director for Development and Sale of Services of the branch Sergey Sevryukov, Chairman of the Committee on Tariffs and Prices of the Kursk region Alexey Karnaushko, Deputy Chairman of the Utilities and Energy Committee of the Kursk region Nikolay Tretyakov, Chairman of the Kursk regional branch of "Opora Russia" Vladimir Glotov, ombudsperson to protect the rights of entrepreneurs in the Kursk region Vladimir Kazarin, and representatives of the business community.
At the meeting chairman of the Council of Consumers was elected. It was a member of the Board of the Kursk regional branch of "Opora Russia", Director of LLC "Kurskenergostroymontazh" Alexey Vishnyakov, for whom the gathered voted unanimously.
One of the most important topics to discuss by the meeting’s participants was the reimbursement of costs of grid organizations for the construction of the grid infrastructure, whose power is subsequently not used by the applicant in its entirety. The Council’s members believe that there is a need to enter into the grid connection contract provisions on liability for non usage by the applicant of the specified customer contract demand.
Other problems were raised during the meeting as well that are faced by the power engineers in the grid connection process. In particular, it was a fairly common situation where they have to construct new networks to connect members of gardening non-profit organizations to the grid, despite the fact that the territory of gardening companies already has adequate infrastructure. As Deputy Director of Development and Sale of Services of Kurskenergo Sergey Sevryukov noted, the problem is that the current legislation does not regulate the question of connecting members of gardening non-profit organizations to existing networks of these organizations. Meanwhile, the construction of new networks not only requires a lot of coordination, but also leads to an increase in electricity tariff, as construction is financed through the transmission tariff.
As a result, the Council of Consumers called for the introduction of amendments to the Grid Connection Rules that would restrict the construction of networks of horticultural societies in exchange for existing ones except when existing networks are in poor condition, or do not meet the increased workload and require reconstruction. Experts also voted for an amendment prohibiting the filing of an application for grid connection of members of electrified nonprofit organizations that are parties to power supply (power transmission) contracts on the border of these organizations.
The members of the Council of Consumers also voted unanimously for changes in the legislation regarding the installation and maintenance of electric power metering systems only by organizations with relevant certificates, permits. At the same metering devices used should be as unified on the types and brands as possible.
Discussion of other important issues concerning the interaction of power engineers with consumers will continue at next meetings of the Council to be held on a quarterly basis.