The launch of five «green» TPPs «Rostec» is postponed until 2024

As Kommersant found out, RT-Invest (controlled by Rostec) may delay the launch of five 355 MW waste incineration power plants (MTES) in the Moscow region and Kazan for a year. For disruption of commissioning, the company faces a fine of up to 7 billion rubles in total, according to experts. However, RT-Invest hopes to avoid fines: the company asks to cancel them, explaining the delay by problems with the delivery of foreign equipment due to the pandemic. The construction of new 25 MTPPs for 650 billion rubles is also questionable - the government criticized the expensive construction and offered to discuss the financial model again.

RT-Invest may delay the launch of five MTES under construction for up to one year: the company hopes to launch facilities at the end of 2023. A company representative said this at a meeting in the government with Deputy Prime Ministers Alexander Novak and Victoria Abramchenko, sources familiar with the meeting told Kommersant. When asked about the reasons for the protracted construction, RT-Invest referred to the problems caused by the pandemic, they specified.

RT-Invest is building four facilities in the Moscow region, one in Kazan. The 355 MW plants are scheduled to begin supplying power from December 1, 2022. The construction of facilities is carried out at the expense of the wholesale energy market. In Russia, MTPPs are equated to green generation, the investor will recover costs through increased payments for capacity from the wholesale energy market under capacity supply agreements (CDM for solid waste). The basic profitability of contracts is 12%. At the same time, MTES is several times more expensive than RES facilities. The planned costs for the construction of these facilities are 378.7 thousand rubles. for 1 kW. The cost of all stations is 155 billion rubles.

According to the rules of CDM for solid waste, for each month behind the schedule, the investor faces a fine - 25% of the guaranteed payment for capacity. According to estimates by Vladimir Sklyar of VTB Capital, the penalty for each month of delay could be 557 million rubles. The fine in one year can reach 6.7 billion rubles. At the same time, the company will not receive 26.7 billion rubles during this period. payments from the market due to non-delivery of capacity.

According to Kommersant's sources, a representative of RT-Invest at the meeting asked the government for help to reduce penalties. However, Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko noted that these are the company's commercial risks.

The representative of RT-Invest noted that at the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Energy developed a draft government decree exempting all renewable energy facilities from fines for a period of one year, with the launch in the second half of 2021. According to RT-Invest, five MTPPs could also be included in this draft resolution. To which the Deputy Prime Minister advised to apply with this proposal to the Ministry of Energy. The Energy Ministry did not respond to Kommersant's request, while the Market Council (the regulator of energy markets) declined to comment.

In "RT-Invest" "b" said that the plans-schedules for the commissioning of all five plants were adjusted for a period of 8 to 12 months. The reason is "global protective sanitary measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic." The company claims that the supply of some of the main equipment for the project was limited, the manufacturers, due to local lockdowns and production restrictions, officially notified the company that it was impossible to supply equipment within a predetermined time frame. RT-Invest has already prepared and sent to the government and the Ministry of Energy proposals (through the initiative of public discussion on regulation.gov.ru) on the shift in the date of the start of power supply and the non-application of penalties by analogy with renewable energy facilities.

The industry is against the unconditional abolition of fines for MTPP. "There was more than enough time to create the facilities, it is necessary to establish the true reasons for the delay, we believe that there are no grounds for non-payment of fines," said Kommersant in the Energy Consumers Community.

"While we are talking about a project of more than a dozen" platinum "waste incineration plants, which are actually proposed to be paid from the federal budget and from the tariff for the population" (Victoria Abramchenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, in her official instagram following the meeting on February 19).

A more ambitious project for the construction of another 25 MTPPs in Russia for 650 billion rubles is also questionable, which is also partially proposed to be financed through the CDA. Those present had questions about the calculations. As a result, the government instructed the departments to analyze the financial model of the project and submit a report to the government, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Russian Environmental Operator PPK - to analyze the need for such facilities and this type of disposal.

Source: https://www.kommersant.ru/