REUTERS
The document was backed by 274 MPs while at least 226 votes are required.
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has passed bill No. 2233 to amend the Law of Ukraine on the Electricity Market, which envisages an increase in electricity sales by Ukraine's national nuclear energy generating company Energoatom in the competitive market from 10% to 15%, as well as a ban on electricity imports from Russia under bilateral agreements.
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The document, considered in the second reading and as a whole, was backed by 274 MPs while at least 226 votes are required, an UNIAN correspondent reported on December 4.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities Andriy Gerus, when reporting on the bill, said that 25 amendments had been submitted for the finalization of the bill, while nine of them had been supported by the committee in general or partly.
"The Energy Community Secretariat supported the version of the bill proposed by the committee and the amendments backed by the committee," he said.
According to Gerus, one of the amendments stipulates the impossibility of electricity imports from Russia under bilateral agreements. In addition, the National Energy and Utilities Regulation Commission (NEURC) will be authorized to restrict electricity imports.
"The 2017 law allowed imports of electricity. In September, we voted for bilateral agreements [for electricity supplies] from Russia and Belarus. Today we're closing imports from Russia under bilateral agreements," he said.
The draft law also stipulates the growth in Energoatom's electricity sales in the free market from the current 10% of generated electricity to 15%. According to Gerus, this will allow the state-owned company to receive more revenue and, accordingly, to allocate additional funds to increase employees' salaries.
As UNIAN reported, the bill passed its first reading in the Verkhovna Rada on November 12.
Gerus then said the document allows resolving the issue of fulfilling special obligations for the purchase of electricity at the so-called "green," or feed-in, tariff. The bill also prevents uncontrolled growth in power rates and obliges electricity producers to submit applications for electricity sales on the day-ahead energy market at prices that do not exceed limits to exclude the creation of artificial shortages.
The bill also proposes that the regulator could have the right to set limit prices on the day ahead and the intra-day markets until July 1, 2023.
The regulator is also given the right until April 1, 2020, to set a tariff for electricity supplies to producers of electric and thermal energy at combined heat and power plants (CHPPs) in cases provided for by a Cabinet resolution on special obligations.
It is also provided that the state-owned company Guaranteed Buyer will use the difference between revenue and spending that appear during the fulfillment of special obligations for the purchase of electricity at feed-in tariffs and at an auction price, to cover own costs accrued from fulfilling these or other special obligations.