Analyzing the Effective Procedure for Substantiating Tariffs for the Production, Supply and Consumption of Thermal Energy

Abstract

The article is aimed at researching the currently effective procedure for the development and approval of tariffs for thermal energy, as well as developing proposals to improve the pricing policy in the sphere of thermal energy supply. The currently effective procedure for substantiating tariffs on thermal energy in Ukraine is considered. The procedure for the economic substantiation of costs, which are included in the tariff, is researched. It is concluded that the current procedure for controlling the validity of costs is not focused on cost saving and improving the production efficiency, but solely on the formal written confirmation of the cost value. The need to submit more than 50 types of calculations and substantiating materials plus the long period of their consideration complicates the operational regulation of the tariff on thermal energy and leads to losses of generating organizations in the event of changes in the value of individual components of the self-cost (price of natural gas, electricity, level of minimum wage, etc.). In order to simplify the procedure for substantiating the level of tariff (or the level of its change) it is proposed to significantly reduce the list of documents that are provided at the tariffication, and to move to the procedure of declaring tariff changes while strengthening the verification work of the authorized bodies. In contrast to the currently effective procedure of control of each component of the tariff, the declaration procedure provides for the control of only the total value of the tariff.

Keywords

• thermal energy
• pricing
• government regulation
• tariff declaration