OREANDA-NEWS. July 18, 2012. The number of violations related to installing electric power metering devices has decreased, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Statistical data collected by FAS confirm this fact. FAS Russia and its regional bodies analyzed the number of violations in the field of energy supply and energy efficiency and the Antimonopoly Service observes a positive trend towards reducing the number of violations. In the first six months of 2012 FAS initiated 8 administrative cases against 4 legal entities and 4 physical persons. In the first six months of 2011 FAS held administratively liable 116 legal entities and 30 physical persons for similar violations.

In July 2010, FAS instructed its regional offices to verify whether organizations, obligated to install, replace, operate metering devices for energy resources, comply with the requirements on concluding and executing contracts for installing, replacing, operating such devices, the procedures for concluding contracts, as well as requirements on forwarding proposals on supplying metering devices for energy resources. Every quarter regional FAS offices forward the findings of the inspections to the Central Office. “The positive trend towards reducing the number of violations in this field shows that economic entities understand the benefits and importance of installing electric power meters and emphasizes the scope and the quality of work undertaken by the antimonopoly body”, discusses the inspections outcome the Head of FAS Department for Control over Electric Power Industry, Vitaly Korolyov.

According to Mr. Korolyov, effective metering is one of the main conditions for rational use of electric power. “Currently, Russian companies do not actively use energy-saving technologies. Nevertheless, electric power industry in Russia has one of the highest potential in energy efficiency. That is why the antimonopoly authority assigns critical importance to control over enforcement of the law on energy efficiency”, explains Mr. Korolyov.

In 2010, Russia devised the National Federal Programme “On Energy Saving and Increasing Energy Efficiency for the Period until 2020”, which was approved by the Government of the Russian Federation in October 2010 and sanctioned by No.2446-r Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 27th December 2010.

The Programme is designed to be instrumental to achieving a large-scale objective of reducing GDP energy intensity by 40% by the year 2020.

In the field of energy saving, the Federal Antimonopoly Service has powers to control whether organizations, obligated to install, replace, operate metering devices of energy resources, meet requirements on concluding and executing contracts for installing, replacing, operating the above devices, the procedures for concluding contracts, and the requirements for forwarding proposals on supplying metering devices for energy resources.