Marina Kovtun requests special pricing policy for surplus power producing Arctic regions
© RIA Novosti. Roman Denisov

Marina Kovtun requests special pricing policy for surplus power producing Arctic regions

The Murmansk Region authorities have been discussing the possibility of introducing a special pricing policy for surplus power producing Arctic regions with the Russian Energy Ministry, TASS news agency cited Murmansk Region Governor Marina Kovtun as saying at the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi.

"Our proposal is to use a special pricing policy for surplus power producing Arctic regions under a new administrative policy. We have discussed this with the Energy Ministry," Kovtun said.

According to Kovtun, the measure will facilitate the extensive use of electricity in generating thermal energy in the Murmansk Region, which will help resolve the region's fuel balance issues.  

"The Murmansk Region depends on oil residue. Although we have drafted a very important document — a comprehensive investment project to alter the fuel balance in the Murmansk Region — it is vital to revert back to the more extensive use of electricity in heat production in the region," she said.

TASS reports that currently all energy sources except energy generating are delivered to the Murmansk Region from other regions. In the context of fuel cost growth and restrictions in housing and utility costs for the public, the region needs to compensate heat generating plants for the gap between oil residue costs and the income derived from providing housing and utility services. 

The regional authorities, in cooperation with the federal government, have decided to work out a comprehensive project to upgrade the region's power generating system until 2030. The primary goal will be to replace the percent of oil residue in the fuel balance with gas and electric energy of which a surplus is generated in the Murmansk Region by hydroelectric plants and the Kola Nuclear Power Plant.