In the opinion of the Vinnytsia court, the commission accused the energy engineers of being “irrational and unreasonable”. It is also known that oblenergos from other cities have already applied to the court.
The Vinnytsia City Court, considering Vinnitsaoblenergo’s claim against the National Commission for State Regulation in the Fields of Energy and Utilities (NKREKU), deemed the regulator’s decision unlawful and annulled fines imposed on electrical engineers for non-compliance. electricity supply programs. This was announced today, February 10, by the RBC-Ukraine agency, citing a court decision.
According to the court, the National Commission “found baseless and unreasonable accusations against Vinnytsia power engineers” and accused them of failing to comply with shutdown programs.
As noted, electrical engineers applied to the court not only in Vinnitsa, but also in other cities where NEURC was fined.
Power engineers fine on “Vinnitsaoblenergo”: what’s the point?
On January 17, NEURC passed a law on violations of the distribution systems operator and imposed a fine of UAH 85,000.
The organizer declared that Vinnitsaoblenergo JSC must comply with the following standards:
- shutdown programs must be developed and implemented by the operator in accordance with the instructions developed by him;
- the operator must update information to consumers about the start and end times of power outages, specifying the names of settlements, streets, houses, buildings and the names of stops (scheduled, emergency, implementation of consumer restriction programs) every 30 minutes;
- the operator is obliged to publish and update information on the official website in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine.
NEURC penalties: DTEK’s position
DTEK also decided to challenge the national commission’s accusations of power outages during the war in court. The corresponding statement was published on the official website of the business on February 10.
“DTEK Grids’ distribution system operators categorically disagree with NEURC’s biased decisions to fine the company and executives, and the accusations cited in their inspection reports for alleged violations of the distribution’s procedure to implement restriction programs by system operators,” the statement reads.
The company claims to have made all necessary disclosures to the regulator regarding the current situation, but allegedly NEURC does not take this information into account.
As mentioned, the court was specifically opened by DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids and DTEK Odesa Electric Grids.
“Energy companies have taken to court and hope that decisions to fine both the company and its employees will be fairly evaluated and reversed,” DTEK said.
Unfair shutdown schemes: consumer complaints
The State Inspectorate of Energy Supervision of Ukraine reported on February 9 that the number of complaints about unfair power outage schemes from consumers is constantly increasing. People especially complain about the unequal distribution of electricity in different houses.
In January of this year alone, investigators evaluated nearly 6,000 such applications; this is 14 times more than the same period of the previous year.
The inspectorate receives the most requests from the Kyiv region, in the second place – Kyiv, in the third place – the Odessa region.
Recall, on January 17, NEURC fined Vinnitsaoblenergo JSC, Chernivtsioblenergo JSC and Volynyoblenergo PrJSC for failing to comply with power cut programs for consumers. In addition, the heads of the above organizations were fined 1,700 hryvnia.
On January 24, NEURC decided to fine DTEK Kyiv Electric Networks and DTEK Odessa Electric Networks for failing to comply with power outage schedules. Penalties were introduced for alleged failures of organizations to properly inform consumers about current restrictions in the energy system.
On January 30, the regulator fined three more entities, PJSC Lvivoblenergo, Zakarapateoblenergo and DTEK Kyiv Regional Electricity Grids, totaling UAH 330,000.
Source: Focus
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