This year Rosseti Centre Belgorodenergo Centre (a branch of IDGC of Centre - Belgorodenergo) concluded over six thousand grid connection agreements. At the beginning of December, obligations for 176 of them were overdue due to the fault of the applicants, about 150 are in the process of pre-trial settlement, nine are in court.
Most often, applicants of the so-called preferential category, with a connected capacity of up to 150 kW, do not fulfill their obligations under concluded grid connection agreements. Those on average account for 90%.
The cost of connection for preferential category applicants with a capacity of up to 15 kW is fixed and amounts to a symbolic 550 rubles, for applicants from 15 to 150 kW it varies from five to 50 thousand rubles. Meanwhile, in order to deliver electricity to a facility, Belgorodenergo constructs power lines and substations worth tens of thousands of rubles, which then remain unclaimed. This situation negatively affects the distribution of investment funds.
“Half of the violators of their obligations under the concluded grid connection agreements are gardeners and owners of land plots for individual housing construction,” says Timur Nesterenko, the head of the grid connection department. “The grid company is forced to deliver power lines to empty plots, while the applicants are in no hurry to begin or finish construction, or put them up for sale. However, not everyone knows that a citizen remains the responsible party under the contract, even in the case of the sale of a house or land plot. Belgorodenergo must be informed about the change of ownership in a timely manner.”
Please, be reminded that the need for the customer to fulfill his part of technical specifications is regulated by the grid connection procedure approved by Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 861 of 27 December 2004. Within the established period, the branch sends the signed draft agreement and its integral application to the customer - technical specifications with a list of measures that he is obliged to perform to connect his facility to the grid. For violation of the deadlines for the fulfillment of obligations undertaken, the applicant will be required to pay a penalty of 5% for each day of delay in case the payment under the contract amounted to 550 rubles, if more than the specified - 0.25% of the amount daily. A year later, Belgorodenergo has the right to judicially demand the termination of the contract and compensation for losses.
In 2019, the courts satisfied 52 claims in the amount of 31.9 million rubles in favour of the Company.