Mykolaiv RMA said whether the cost of heat will change for the next heating season: Tariffs will remain the same

Preparation for the heating season. Photo: NikVesti

Mykolaiv RMA promised to maintain tariffs for heat for the population for the upcoming heating season 2024-2025.

This was stated by the head of the housing and communal services department, Yevhen Hladkov, NikVesti writes.

«I would like to note that the issue of revising tariffs for the population is currently not under consideration. We are sure that the tariffs will be maintained for the next heating season as well,» he said.

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The official also emphasized that the population pays for the consumed thermal energy on time. In the period from January to June this year, the level of payments exceeded 100%, which shows that people are not only paying current bills, but also paying off debts for the past heating season.

It should be noted that the current tariff for subscribers of Mykolaivvoblteploenergo OKP is 1,999.08 hryvnias per gigacalorie including VAT, while the cost of heating for subscribers of «Mykolaivska CHP» is 1,873.39 hryvnias.

We will remind that in August 2022, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law prohibiting the increase of heat and hot water tariffs until the end of martial law and six months after.

It should be noted that recently Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych reported to Oleksii Chernyshov, Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, how the city is preparing for the start of the heating season. He said that after the last heating season, the city «took hold» of Mykolaiv thermal power station and a large number of heating networks will be changed before the heating season.

It is worth noting that Oleksii Chernyshov in a comment to NikVesti promised to monitor that Mykolaiv CHP was ready for the heating season this year. He stated that the company will make every possible effort to avoid problems at Mykolaiv CHP at the start of the 2024-2025 heating season.

Note that in February of this year, the management announced the construction of a new heating network along Pohranychna Street in Mykolaiv, which became one of the most problematic areas during the last heating season. Later, in March, a tender was announced for the construction of a network worth over 500 million hryvnias from Korabeliv Street to Marshal Vasylevskyi Street. However, funds for its construction have not yet been found.

How Mykolaiv CHP failed the heating season in 2023

Excavation of Mykolaiv thermal power plant in the center of Mykolaiv, photo from the archive of NikVesti, September 2023.

The 2023-24 heating season in Mykolaiv began on November 14, but Mykolaiv CHP was able to provide heat to residents only at the beginning of December due to numerous accidents on heating networks. The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, believes that the problems with starting heat will only worsen in the coming years.

After the disruption of the heating season and statements by the Mykolaiv RMA about the need for personnel decisions, the CHP began an official investigation to find the culprits.

As of the evening of November 18, 2023, Mykolaiv CHP connected only half of the total number of its consumers in Mykolaiv to heat. At the same time, in September, the CHP reported that it was 92% ready for the start of the heating season.

Excavation of the CHP plant in the center of Mykolaiv, photo from the archive of NikVesti, November 2023

As of the evening of November 20, dozens of apartment buildings remained without heating in Mykolaiv. In several districts of the city, repair works of heating networks continued. Then the first deputy of Mykolaiv city mayor Vitalii Lukov announced that they plan to connect all residential buildings of Mykolaiv to heat in a few days.

However, on the evening of November 21, there were still more than 400 apartment buildings in the city without heating. Mykolaiv CHPP said that delays in the supply of heat to multi-apartment buildings occurred due to large gusts on the main pipelines of the heating lines.

On November 30, the CHP reported that due to emergency works in three more areas of the city, residents will be left without heating again for some time. However, the company immediately announced the good news — according to forecasters, the weather conditions in Mykolaiv are expected to improve.

Numerous gusts of CHP networks are connected, in particular, with the fact that last heating season the enterprise used salty water from the estuary, which accelerates the corrosion of already outdated pipes. In contrast to this, purified water from wells was poured into «Mykolaivvoblteploenergo», which NikVesti wrote in the article «Winter is near: What will the heating season be like in Mykolaiv?». Thus, the start of both heating seasons began without disruptions and significant accidents in the houses served by the regional heat and power utility.

At the same time, the Mykolaiv thermal power station reported that during the 2023/2024 heating season, water from the estuary will be poured in only in emergency cases. Thus, the company's networks are filled with salt water by 8%, while last year the systems were filled with estuarine water by 91%.

The section of Mariupolska Street where the CHP refuses to repair the asphalt, photo NikVesti, March 2024

For six months now, Mykolaiv CHPP has not been bringing Mariupolska (Moskovska) Street (from Tsentralnyi Avenue to Chkalova, where repair work was carried out on heating networks last fall. In Mykolaivska CHPP, they say that it makes no sense to asphalt the excavated sections of the road along Mariupolska Street at the moment, because after several The section of the network from Dunaieva Street to Sevastopolska Street will be partially replaced.

We will remind you that the director of the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant (TPP) Dmytro Myroshnychenko submitted a declaration on property and income for 2023. During the year, the official earned 2 million 143 thousand 897 hryvnias. On average, the salary of an official was 178 thousand hryvnias per month (about 4.5 thousand US dollars).

In addition, the Mykolaiv District Administrative Court will consider the case based on the lawsuit filed by the journalist of the online media «Nikvesti» against the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant (TPP), which refused to provide information about the salaries of the management during 2023.