OREANDA-NEWS. Starting from December 1, the State Foreign Trade Company ‘Ukrinterenergo’ has stopped commercial electricity imports from Russia under a contract with ‘Inter RAO UES’.

This was stated to UNIAN by the Press Secretary of the Fuel and Energy Minister Mr. Fent Di.

‘The imports of electricity from Russia have been stopped,’ – said he.

Ukraine began electricity imports from Russia on September 15 , 2008 due to the critical situation with coal stocks accumulation at its TPPs resulting from an unscheduled repair of power unit 2 at Khmelnitskaya NPP. According to the Fuel and Energy Ministry, the Russian electricity was imported at a price 12% below that of the wholesale electricity market.

Imports of electricity from Russia were criticized by the privately-owned thermal generation companies, in particular by ‘Vostokenergo’ (DTEK); ‘Vostokenergo’ stressed that in view of the reduced energy consumption inside the country due to the crisis in MMC and chemical industry, the profitability of domestic thermal generators was significantly reduced since their share in the Unified Power Grid declined.

According to the Fuel and Energy Ministry, over the period from September 15 to November 1 Ukraine imported 637 million kWh of electricity from Russia, which makes up USD 44 million.