MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Crimean Peninsula will integrate into the all-Russia market of electric power as a non-price zone as of 2018, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview published by Kommersant Daily on Tuesday.
"When Crimea gets its own power generating facilities, they will be included in the (all-Russia) wholesale market, and the Crimean Peninsula will integrate in it as a non-price zone but this will happen only in 2018," he said. "For the time being, however, a special pattern of wholesale electricity purchases will be in effect."
Supplies of power Russia’s integrated power grid are one-third smaller than the prices, at which electricity was sold to Crimea by Ukraine.
On the whole, Crimea consumers about 6.4 bln kWh of electricity a year and purchases from Ukraine totaled 4.9 bln kWh. Now almost a half of needed power will be supplied from the Russian power grids and the electricity produced by Crimea’s own generating facilities will add to it.
"When the electricity bridge (a submerged high-voltage line that transmits electric power to Crimea from mainland Russia across the Kerch Strait - TASS) adds another 400 MW, we’ll be able to cross out supplies from Ukraine at all but this won’t solve the importance of subsidizing the fees foe electric power for the customers located in the Crimean Federal District, since the final tariffs will be smaller than the economically substantiated expenditure for purchases and transmission of electricity," Novak said. "That why the subsidies for covering electricity fees in Crimea will be lifted stage by stage."
As he answered a question about construction on a thermal power plant in Taman on the North-Caucasian coast of the Black Sea, he said the consumer demand for electricity from that facility is guaranteed.
"There are many of those who’d like to take part in the bidding contest and you can find Russian and foreign companies among the bidders, including companies from China," Novak said. "We expect the bidding contest will be held in the second half of 2016.".