Dorin Chirtoaca: Energy companies include imaginary costs in heating tariff

The thermoelectric plant CET-1 should decrease the tariff on the heat product by it from 482 lei to 346 lei per Gcal, while CET-2 – from 403 lei to 311 lei per Gcal, say the Chisinau authorities, who analyzed the formation of the heating tariff and the work of the local thermoelectric sector. This way, the final heating charge for consumers will not exceed the current charge of 540 lei per Gcal. The energy companies introduced a series of imaginary costs into the heating tariff, Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said at a news conference on November 17, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. “The analysis shows that the plants exaggerated the wear degree. Fixing a profitability rate of 18% at CET-2 and of 18% at CET-1 from investments only, plus an additional profitability rate of 5%, the turnover was raised by at least 10%,” Dorin Chirtoaca said. The mayor also said that since 2007 Moldova-Gaz, CET-1, CET-2 and the previous Governments had demanded that the heating charges be increased. The charge is now 540 lei per Gcal. The previous season, they demanded a charge of 840 lei, while now of 798 lei. “The Chisinau City Hall together with the civil society and the Government struggles that the heating charge be transparent, reasonable and lower,” the mayor said. Dorin Chirtoaca informed that in 2008, CET-2 reported indirect production costs of 51.199 million lei, while in 2009 – of 102 million lei already. “For the coming winter, CET-1 bought crude oil for 2,054 lei a tonne, while CET-2 – for 5,300 lei a tonne. The difference is 30 million lei for crude oil only,” the mayor said. The mayor also said that Termocom SA received yearly 1.4 million gigacalories of heat from CET-1 and CET -2, while the two thermoelectric power plants during the cold season produce 1 million gigacalories at the most. “It means that the 400,000 gigacalories that the CETs produced in summer and evaporated them in the atmosphere were purchased by Termocom and the consumers of the musicality of Chisinau in winter.” At the end, the mayor said that the national energy regulator ANRE must ensure transparency in fixing the tariffs on the heat supplied by CET-1 and CET-2 and justify the current charges if they remain unchanged.