OREANDA-NEWS. December 09, 2008. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) increases control over manipulation of prices for electrical energy and power jointly with the "Market Council" Non-Commercial Partnership as part of the programme for developing competitive market of electrical energy and protecting the interests of all players on the wholesale market by setting numerical values of deviations that must be revealed in course of monitoring prices for electrical energy on the wholesale markets of electrical energy and power, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Following every trading session, the "Market Council" Non-Commercial Partnership monitors prices for the amount of electrical energy included in the scheduled hourly generation (consumption) that balance demand and supply of electrical energy and are determined according to competitive selection of price bids a day in advance in each price zone of the wholesale market, as well as determined on the basis of competitive selection for balancing the system.

"Market Council" forwards the results of the price monitoring to the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) that can reveal the cases of manipulating prices for the electrical energy on the wholesale market. Investigating the antimonopoly cases, FAS Russia ascertains the facts of manipulating prices for the electrical energy on the wholesale market and suppresses them by making decisions and issuing mandatory determinations.

Facts of manipulations are ascertained in course of antimonopoly case investigations, in particular, by comparing prices indicated by the players on the wholesale market in their price bids with the real costs of generating electrical energy in a particular hour, by comparing the amount given by the bidders with possible amount of electrical energy generated by the stations, on the basis of technical specification of the generating equipment, restrictions of heating load, fuel provision, as well as taking into consideration different types of maximum economically justified costs of generating electrical energy (without power) according to the type of the plant, which are determined by the federal executive body on tariff regulation.

In the near future, to increase control and suppress price manipulation on the wholesale electrical energy market, the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the "Market Council" Non-Commercial Partnership plan to sign the Agreement on Co-operation Procedures between FAS Russia the "Market Council" Non-Commercial Partnership regarding monitoring of prices for electrical energy and revealing the cases of manipulating the prices for electrical energy on the wholesale market of electrical energy (power).