The Ministry of Fuel and Energy favors the idea of transferring the ownership of heat and power plants to municipalities.
Deputy Minister Volodymyr Luchnykov made this statement to the press in Odesa, answering the question about a delay in the transfer of the Odesa heat and power plant from the State to the municipality.
"The Ministry of Fuel and Energy has the same opinion as the city heads. We want all heat and power plants to be transferred to municipalities because a heat and power plant means supply of heating, and the share of electricity generated by them is quite insufficient for the unified energy system," Luchnykov commented.
He added that all plants like that - there are 14 of them in Ukraine - are obsolete and their reconstruction and modernization require serious investments.
As Luchnykov put it, the effective law 'has tied the heat and power plants deeply' to the state property, and some laws that were adopted in 1992 and later need to be changed to transfer the facilities.
Luchnykov assured that the Ministry of Fuel and Energy is currently working on legislation improvements.
He added that the ministry received a few proposals to build a new plant in Odesa, including one from V.S. Energy International Ukraine, which suggests a project of steam and gas plant to be raised in the grounds of the coal yard of the Odesa heat and power plant.
Anatolii Zommer, vice president of V.S. Energy International Ukraine, explained to the press that his company did not expect to encounter such big hurdles in land lease when it offered to build the plant.
"We proposed to build a 36-MW station that will meet all needs in heating energy in Odesa. We are fighting for the project because the grids of the oblenerho are powered by the heat and power plant's equipment," Zommer said.
If this equipment breaks down, the population will have claims to Odesaoblenerho, he explained.
If the company receives a possibility to build the station, it will be ready by 2012, Zommer added.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Odesaoblenerho announced in 2006 that it planned to build steam and gas stations in the city of Izmail, a district center in Odesa region, and in Odesa before 2009.
Equipment of the Odesa heat and power plant is more than 90% depreciated.
25.01% of the shares in Odesaoblenerho belong to the State Property Fund and are managed by the Energy Company of Ukraine, 44% to the V.S. Energy International-Ukraine limited liability company, 11.16% to V.S. Energy International N.V. (Netherlands), 5.41% to Foster Group Management (Bahamas), and the remainder to other corporate entities and individual investors.
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