Belarusian energy system development program revised

The government program to guide the development of the Belarusian energy system till 2016 has been corrected. The new document was adopted by Council of Ministers resolution No. 892. The resolution was published by the national legislation information website law.by on 17 October, BelTA has learned.

The correction has been performed for the sake of updating the program.

The changes are most visible in the part concerning results of the government program. In line with the new document the Belarusian national electric company Belenergo is supposed to commission 1,871.3MW of energy-generating facilities by 2016 instead of 2,241MW. As much as 906MW worth of ineffective installations will be decommissioned instead of 1,820MW. Natural gas consumption is supposed to be reduced to 2.015 million tonnes of oil equivalent (1.75 billion m3) instead of 1.426 million tonnes of oil equivalent (1.26 billion m3). Parameters of fuel and energy saving as well as the expected specific fuel consumption for electricity generation at Belenergo facilities have been left unchanged – 1.265 million tonnes of oil equivalent and 25-30g of equivalent fuel per 1kWh respectively. The demand for finance to implement the program (taking into account money spent in 2011-2012) now stands at Br39.191 trillion instead of Br45.063 trillion (taking into account money spent in 2011).

The list of legislative instruments the program’s development relied on has changed. Titles of some sections have been changed, outdated names of government agencies have been updated. Some other changes have been introduced.

Asked to comment on the corrected government program, Belenergo Director General Yevgeny Voronov remarked that the document now meets the conditions that had changed since the program was initially adopted. The lower volume of energy-generating facilities to be commissioned was attributed to the rescheduling of some launches to the period starting from 2017. However, the country's demand for heating and electricity will be satisfied. Respectively the volumes and timelines for decommissioning ineffective energy facilities have been changed, the demand for finance to implement the program has been corrected. While most of the corrections are technical, the strategic goal and the main directions to implement the program remain unchanged: further reduction of the GDP energy intensity through better performance of the entire energy system, better energy effectiveness of the national economy. Securing a certain share of local and renewable fuels in the total consumption will play its part, too.