Criteria for Heat Network Companies: Legal Capacity Issues

Amendments to the heat supply laws came into force over a year ago, providing criteria for acquiring the status of a heat network company. The purpose of these innovations was to bring order to the heat market and maintain competent professional players. It aimed at consolidating network assets in the last resort heat supplier, the unified heat distribution company, and depriving enterprises that lack the necessary material, labor, and technical resources for proper maintenance and repair of heat networks of the status of a heat network company. The intermediate results of the reform suggest now that the legislator’s expectations were not fully met. While disclosing the historical peculiarities of heat industry development in the pre-reform period, this article examines the factors that first led to the emergence of multiple heat network companies in the heat supply market and then prompted the legislator to take measures to optimize the number of regulated organizations. To simulate the potential effects of legal regulation, the author examines the electric power industry, which is related to heat supply. The legislator had already established criteria for local grid organizations in this industry several years before the reform of heat network companies. However, the legal position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation prevented the legislator’s efforts from being fully implemented. To address the problem at hand, the author suggests transitioning from quantitative to qualitative criteria for evaluating an entity’s compliance with the status of a heat network company. This approach will prioritize the reliability of heat supply over using compliance as a formal basis for depriving bona fide enterprises of the status of a professional player in the heat market.

Keywords

energy law, unified heat distribution company, heat distribution company, heat network company, criteria for heat network companies

Received

20.11.2023

Publication date

17.03.2024

Number of characters

16948

Cite Download pdf To download PDF you should sign in

GOST	Khamidullin M. Criteria for Heat Network Companies: Legal Capacity Issues // Energy law forum – 2024. – Issue 1 C. 28-34 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://mlcjournal.ru/S231243500030169-3-1 (circulation date: 19.05.2024). DOI: 10.61525/S231243500030169-3
MLA	Khamidullin, Marat T "Criteria for Heat Network Companies: Legal Capacity Issues." Energy law forum 1 (2024):28-34. DOI: 10.61525/S231243500030169-3
APA	Khamidullin M. (2024). Criteria for Heat Network Companies: Legal Capacity Issues. Energy law forum (1), pp.28-34 DOI: 10.61525/S231243500030169-3

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1	Деятельность хозяйствующих субъектов в сфере теплоснабжения строится на основе компетентности профессиональных участников рынка тепловой энергии – теплоснабжающих и теплосетевых организаций.
2	В качестве первого принципа организации отношений в сфере теплоснабжения в ст. 3 Федерального закона от 27 июля 2010 г. №190-ФЗ «О теплоснабжении» (далее – Закон о теплоснабжении) [1] вынесен принцип обеспечения надежности теплоснабжения в соответствии с требованиями технических регламентов.
3	Данный принцип, как следует из ст. 20 Закона о теплоснабжении, включает в себя, прежде всего, обязанность теплоснабжающих и теплосетевых предприятий обеспечить безаварийный режим работы объектов теплоснабжения, что невозможно без их надлежащей технической эксплуатации, проведения ремонтов и качественного обслуживания. Для выполнения этих требований необходимо обеспечить в организации наличие квалифицированного персонала, материально-технической базы и достаточного объема финансовых средств.
4	Между тем, реализация данного принципа в полной мере не всегда возможна, поскольку не все участвующие в технологической цепочке снабжения тепловыми энергоресурсами объекты теплоснабжения получают необходимое содержание, обеспечивающее их бесперебойную работу.
5	Это обусловлено несколько факторами.
6	На переходном этапе от государственного монополизма в экономике, в том числе и в сфере энергетики, в условиях отсутствия законодательного регулирования рыночных отношений в теплоснабжении (период с 1991 по 2010 гг.), с появлением института частной собственности возникла проблема «лоскутного одеяла» в инженерных сетях – наличие множества частных собственников сетей на определенной территории, которая требовала учитывать их интересы [2].
7	Этому в немой степени способствовало отсутствие в законодательстве механизмов по понуждению теплоснабжающих организаций к выполнению строительства сетей до объектов потребителей. В данный период подключение потребителей осуществлялось без заключения договора технологического присоединения на основании выдаваемых потребителю технических условий, которые содержали требования о прокладке трубопроводов самим потребителем [3]. В результате появилось огромное количество тепловых сетей находящихся на балансе потребителей вне зон эксплуатационной ответственности энергоснабжающих организаций.
8	Для решения возникшей проблемы законодателю пришлось изменить правила игры и установить, что «последнюю милю» (сети до объекта потребителя) при подключении строит теплоснабжающая организация за счет заявителя [4]. Одновременно в соответствие с этой концепцией были приведены иные нормы законодательства, исключающие появление сетевых объектов на балансе потребителей. Так, в п. 8 Правил содержания общего имущества в многоквартирном доме, утвержденных Постановлением Правительства РФ от 13 августа 2006 г. №491 [5] было предусмотрено, что внешней границей сетей теплоснабжения, входящих в состав общего имущества в многоквартирном доме является внешняя граница стены дома.

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