OREANDA-NEWS. The initiative of IDGC of Centre on amending legislation in regions of its service area abolishing the requirement to obtain a permit for the construction of power grid facilities of voltage class up to 20 kV inclusive is becoming more widespread. In late June, the amendment came into effect in the Lipetsk region: the relevant regional law was adopted by regional deputies. Earlier the approval procedure was legally abolished in six regions of the Central Federal District, where IDGC of Centre operates: the Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Belgorod, Voronezh, Tambov, Bryansk and Smolensk regions. This was the result of constructive cooperation of the power company and regional governments.

IDGC of Centre has developed the amendments and initiated their adoption process in the regions in 2014, as part of the measures with the approved by the Government of the Russian Federation "road map" to improve the power grid infrastructure availability. The goal of innovation is to optimize the procedure of connection of consumers to electric grids. Previously, in order to get permission for their construction, the power company was required to examine the design documentation and to submit the results of engineering studies for approval to the relevant bodies. As a result, the company bore significant additional costs and deadlines of activities under the grid connection contracts increased substantially. The proposed legislative changes allow to solve this problem.

In the near future, IDGC of Centre intends to extend this experience to other regions of its service area. In particular, the relevant bills are already pending in the legislature of the Orel and Kursk regions.