Belarus’ Energy Ministry: No electricity supply contracts with Ukraine in 2015

Belarus has not concluded contracts on electricity supplies from Ukraine in 2015, spokeswoman for the Energy Ministry of Belarus Zhanna Zenkevich told BelTA as she commented on the recent media reports on alleged cessation of electricity exports to Belarus by Ukraine.

“Belarus has not been importing Ukrainian electricity since October 2014. Later a decision was taken not to sign supply agreements with Ukraine for 2015,” the spokeswoman said. She added that at present Belarus gets the necessary volumes of electricity from Russia.

On 13 January some mass media reported on the complete cessation of electricity exports to Belarus and Moldova with reference to the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry. It was also reported that the relevant decision had been taken “to support the balanced regime between the consumed and generated electric capacities in the United Energy System of Ukraine and avoid cutting off consumers from power grids of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry.”

In autumn 2014 the Energy Ministry of Belarus received a letter from Ukrenergo saying that the Ukrainian ministry decided to stop power supplies to Belarus as of 1 October 2014. The Ukrainian side had to resort to such measures due to the growing consumption of electricity in its central and northern parts and insufficient volumes of fuel for the generating plants in the abovementioned regions. As of October 2014 Ukrainian electricity accounted for about 4.5% in Belarus’ electricity balance.

According to the Energy Ministry, Belarus has enough interstate power lines with its neighbors (Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic states), which makes it possible, proceeding from the ongoing situation in the energy systems of the neighboring countries, to decide on electricity imports. The bulk of electricity for the country's needs is generated at Belarus’ own energy resources.

Before October 2014 Ukraine supplied Belarus with electricity according to the schedule. In 2014 Belarus planned to import 3 billion kWh of electricity from Ukraine and about 1 billion kWh from Russia.