New energy balance in development due to Belarusian nuclear power plant

A new version of the energy balance is in development in Belarus taking into account the output capacity of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, BelTA learned from Belarusian Deputy Economy Minister Dmitry Krutoi during the session of the Council of Ministers Presidium on 26 May. The session was held to discuss amendments and addenda to Directive No. 3 “Economy and frugality as key factors of the national economic security”.

The official said that the country’s energy balance will be re-determined once the Belarusian nuclear power plant goes online. “We expect proposals of the production sector on how to use the electricity that the nuclear power plant will generate,” said the Deputy Economy Minister.

Dmitry Krutoi remarked that Belarus’ power grid has been seriously modernized since 2007, with the construction of the nuclear power plant as the pinnacle of the effort. “The construction of the nuclear power plant will seriously reshape our energy industry. It should be taken into account. This is why energy effectiveness is one of the key directions of the work on amending and expanding Directive No. 3,” explained the official. The Directive was adopted in special circumstances brought about by so-called oil and gas wars of 2007. “The main purpose of the document was to minimize negative consequences of the increase in prices for Russian energy resources and the introduction of certain restrictions on Russian oil deliveries. The document was primarily meant to save fuel resources and energy. And it worked rather well,” stressed the Belarusian Deputy Economy Minister.

“Since 2007 GDP energy intensity in oil equivalent per $1,000 has dropped to 290kg. The depreciation of basic assets in the Belarusian energy industry stands at 39% while the figure was 65% in 2005-2006. The consumption of natural gas has dropped by virtually 2 billion m3. Apart from that, we have commissioned about 3,000 new energy sources, including about 120 ones powered by renewable local fuel,” said Dmitry Krutoi. He stressed that saving resources is still on agenda.

Amendments and addenda to Directive No. 3 will apply not only to energy policy but a number of other directions as well. “The first of them will be export diversification that will allow optimizing the balance of Belarus’ foreign trade. The second direction is the new economy that we will build by 2020, I mean the fifth and sixth technological paradigms, the development of new industries and new enterprises. The third direction is our traditional industry. Mechanical engineering and other branches of the traditional industry account for about 25% of Belarus’ GDP. It is time to seriously look at the sector, its management system,” believes Dmitry Krutoi. In his words, the key is economic modernization: the introduction of modern systems to manage resources, effective use of property, engineering efforts.

The idea to update Directive No. 3 was put forward by the Belarus President Administration in January 2015. “Taking into account the wider range of matters this document will address we suggest a new name for the document ‘Economic security as the key factor for the sustainable development of the state’,” concluded Dmitry Krutoi.