Ukraine bans import of electricity from Russia, Belarus for another month, until Nov 1, 2021

The National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) has extended the ban on the import of electricity from the countries that are not members of the Energy Community, that is, from the Russian Federation and Belarus, for another month – until November 1 of this year.

The regulator made the corresponding decision on September 29.

During the meeting, member of the commission Dmytro Kovalenko noted that this issue was considered at a meeting of the Anti-Crisis Energy Headquarters on Monday, September 27. It was supported by market participants, the Ministry of Energy, and government representatives, as well as Ukrenergo.

"At its headquarters, Ukrenergo noted that the situation is under control and the ban on electricity imports for a month will not cause problems with operational safety in the integrated power system of the country. There is already a protocol of the Anti-Crisis Headquarters to do this," Kovalenko explained.

According to him, the decision to further extend the ban will be made on the basis of the operational situation, in particular with the accumulation of coal in Ukraine.

At the same time, following a proposal from Ukrenergo, the regulator, after the meeting, approved a resolution with wording allowing the transmission system operator in October to hold auctions to allocate capacity for imports from Russia and Belarus for November, in case the ban for this month is no longer imposed.

There is no text of the resolution on the NEURC website yet.

As reported, the NEURC established a ban on the import of electricity from the Russian Federation and Belarus by decree No. 853 dated May 26, its validity period expires on October 1. The powers of the regulator to limit the available bandwidth distributed at daily and monthly auctions in 2021 is enshrined in law of Ukraine No. 1396-IX regarding the certification of Ukrenergo.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua