COMMUNAL ENERGY OR “THE SIZE MATTERS”

Formation of efficient heat supply markets with the priority of cogeneration while respecting the interests of business entities and consumers is one of the key tasks stipulated by the Energy Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2035. Given the technological nature of cogeneration, the proposed solutions should also consider the rules for the functioning of retail electricity markets and be comprehensive. In the issue at hand, this has been a determining factor in developing proposals. The article presents the result of the analysis of normative documents regulating certain aspects of activities in the field of electricity and heat supply, expressed in the proposed model of their organization in terms of the main provisions of the legal status of the proposed economic entity — a balanced energy supply organization (BESO), an operator of a municipal local intelligent energy system. A new concept of “communal energy” is also introduced by defining its boundaries by residential zones. The activities of the BESO are carried out within the framework of the communal local intelligent energy system (LIES(с)), formed based on distributed cogeneration, operating in the mode of combined generation of electricity and heat. This organization comprehensively carries out the production, transmission, sale of energy, and billing of the process. Activities are carried out in the communal sphere in the form of the provision of communal services, including electricity and heat supply, in a natural monopoly using appropriate regulatory methods. The main approaches to the legislative support of implementing the proposed option are formulated. The proposals made are debatable, but they can be accepted for implementation since attempts to solve several problems in the communal sphere using established concepts to its organization have not led to the desired result. This conclusion is confirmed by listing the same problems in different development strategies each time, indicating that they have not been resolved.

municipal energy, electricity and heat markets, distributed energy, local intelligent energy system, organisational and legal model in the energy sector, vertical integration, separation of activities in the energy sector, natural monopoly, cross-subsidization, efficiency

Byk F. L., Epifantsev A. V., Myshkina L. S. Communal energy or “the size matters”. Business. Education. Law, 2021, no. 4, pp. 260—265. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2021.57.452.