Humiliation With Electricity

On November 28 President Leonid Kuchma held a scheduled meeting with Premier Viktor Yushchenko and Speaker Ivan Pliushch, discussing a broad range of issues, including the situation in the fuel-energy complex (FEC).

As of last Tuesday, only five of Ukraine’s 14 nuclear power units were operational and the entire additional load was on thermal power stations, meaning a sharp increase in natural gas consumption. The sudden cutout of five nuclear plants from Monday through Friday, with a total capacity of 5,000 megawatts, placed the nation’s entire energy system on the verge of collapse, an expert in the field stated in an interview with Interfax Ukraine, adding that this system is barely kept alive. Never before have eight atomic power plants been closed for repair during the fall-winter electricity consumption peak. The situation is made considerably worse by the thermal electric stations lacking organic fuel, which means they will not be able to maintain Ukraine’s energy balance.

All this made energy Vice Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko’s leave of absence very strange (she is said to have flown to London), because she left without presenting public evidence of being fully prepared for the winter. The Day’s experts assume that the Vice Premier’s festive mood is explained by either a final decision to resign or by her involvement in investigative-judicial proceedings concerning the Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine’s liabilities and other problems (Mr. and Mrs. Tymoshenko used to run UESU and her husband is still in preliminary detention).

Meanwhile Viktor Yushchenko, now shouldering the entire energy sector burden in the Vice Premier’s absence (which reminds one of what he said in an interview with the weekly Dzerkalo tyzhnia , “I truly regret that the Prime Minister has constantly to deal with the energy sector — payments, blackouts, and contacts with NERC [National Electricity Regulatory Commission]. I find this humiliating.”), had to postpone his trip to Donetsk, on November 27, explaining this by problems with the budget bill and the need to work with parliamentary factions and committees. One can understand the Premier; the budget bill must be saved. On the other hand, if he had gone to Donetsk as scheduled, he would perhaps have seen for himself the nature of the problems facing the cabinet’s budget program.

In fact, people were waiting for him in the land of coal miners, and not only because he had spoken at such length about corruption in the coal industry (relying on Mrs. Tymoshenko’s data). Oleksandr FILIPPOV, head of the regional state administration’s department for industries, transport, and communications, told The Daythat the regional administration would try to defend the existing free economic zones and the metallurgical enterprises’ participation in the economic experiment now underway in Ukraine’s mining and metallurgical complex; they would likewise argue their own views on the internal budget process. Mr. Yushchenko, however, did not visit Donetsk that time.

When asked by The Daywhether the dramatic situation in the Donbas, in terms of coal and power supplies, was the reason [for the Premier’s canceled visit], Viktor YANUKOVYCH, head of the regional state administration, replied, “Mr. Yushchenko called me yesterday (i.e., November 27 — Auth.) and said, ‘The budget process is underway and I can’t get away...’” Thus Mr. Yanukovych did not attribute the cancellation to the energy situation in the region. “We are keeping the situation under control,” he stressed, adding that the situation is “very complicated, because the thermal electric stations of Ukraine are in a very bad state. We have two power units at the Vuhlehirsk TES operating at maximum capacity and they use gas, so increased gas consumption lowers the pressure, especially at the terminal points (where we have terminal gas pipelines). In a number of cities the boiler rooms are kept in the manual operation mode and network water temperature is at the critical level.” The governor believes that the problem lies not so much in the payments for gas as in its physical absence. Mr. Yanukovych blames the center: “Take Donetsk. It has many budget-sustained enterprises, but they are not subsidized. In fact, Donetsk has run out of gas today, which it has paid for. If that 2.5 million hryvnias were paid for by the state-budget-sustained enterprises, we would have enough gas to the end of the month.” He also added that Donetsk oblast contributes some three billion hryvnias to the consolidated budget, while it gets back only 1.2 million. “You should take the matter in hand and regulate things so we are not turned into fools or idiots,” he said, addressing the budget process participants. “After all, you can’t say that we don’t want to pay. Do I have any money which I don’t want to pay? No, I am paying the way you planned. Why not leave all the money in the budget and make all the payments yourselves? Municipal and household gas procurements are a function of the state. We are supplied and pay to the state. Then build a mechanism preventing political ‘divorces.’ We don’t need them. Our industries pay for gas 100% and our people some 80%. Toward the end of the year the people will also pay 100%. You can’t blame us here.”