Rinat Akhmetov
The city authorities are ready to take over the business of the owner of KyivEnergo.
Kyiv is preparing to launch a new municipal utility company in the housing and utilities sector, Kyivteploenergo. Formally established in 2006, it existed only on paper. Initially, the company was intended to take over the city's heating grid and two combined heat and power plants (CHPs) No. 5 and No. 6, and in 2009, it was intended to become an alternative to Kyivenergo (at that time, the latter company owed the city a substantial amount for gas consumption). However, the authorities' plans were never realized.
According to the current plan, the utility company is to fully or partially assume maintenance of the city's heating networks. "The creation of the utility company is preparation for merging all of Kyiv's heating networks into a single city complex," explained Volodymyr Bondarenko, head of the Kyiv City Council Commission on Housing, Utilities, and Fuel and Energy. He explained that this is necessary to return the heating networks currently leased to Kyivenergo to the city. Kyiv's corresponding contract with Rinat Akhmetov's company expires in 2017. Meanwhile, Kyivteploenergo wants to acquire the heating networks on the Left Bank, where heating is currently provided by Eurorekonstruktsiya LLC (part of businessman Anatoliy Shkriblyak's Technova Group). Currently, these utility networks are also managed by Kyivenergo, the monopoly. However, according to Kyiv City State Administration officials, the company has already given preliminary consent to return this property to the city.
Most of the capital's heating networks have long been worn out and require replacement. Therefore, after gaining control of the heating mains, their repairs will have to be financed from the capital's budget. "So this solution may be more beneficial to KyivEnergo than to the city."
"Therefore, the Kyiv City Council's relevant commission is in no hurry to approve the project," Kyiv City Council deputy Vadym Nozdrya told DS.
On May 13, Kyiv City State Administration Head Vitaliy Klitschko approved the charter of the new public utility company. Its authorized capital will be only 5 hryvnias. The document states that the company's goal is to improve the reliability of energy supply, ensure stable budget revenues, and ensure the proper operation of Kyiv-owned electricity and heat supply facilities. However, the charter still needs to be approved by the Kyiv City Council's relevant commission on housing and communal services and the fuel and energy sector. The issue has already been submitted to the council twice for consideration, but has not received approval. The commission allegedly requires not only general statements about the public utility's future operations but also its economics. Kyiv City State Administration officials are currently working on a more detailed plan for Kyivteploenergo, which will be presented in June.
Meanwhile, the director of the new municipal enterprise has already been appointed. Vitali Klitschko's Order No. 454 assigned this position to Yulia Orel. She has extensive experience in housing and utilities services. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Yulia Orel, along with Oleksandr Leshchenko, remains a co-owner and director of Kyivgradservice LLC. This company regularly wins tenders for housing maintenance in the Shevchenkivskyi District. Recently, it was entrusted with buildings in the Dibrova, Nyvky, and Prokrovska microdistricts, from which Kyivgradservice will earn UAH 1,8 million. According to media reports, Kyivzhytlosvit LLC was a co-founder of Kyivgradservice. One of the co-owners of the latter was Viktor Andreyev, currently First Deputy Head of the Shevchenkivskyi District State Administration. Therefore, Kyivgradservice's tender victories are apparently no coincidence.
Yulia Orel herself worked in the housing maintenance sector as deputy director of the Dubrava Housing and Utility Office in the Shevchenkivskyi district, where Vasyl Grigorenko was director. He currently heads the Municipal Enterprise "Management Company for Housing Maintenance in the Svyatoshinsky District of Kyiv." He is said to be Yulia Orel's husband and a close associate of Petro Panteleyev, deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration.
As the director of Kyivteploenergo, Yulia Orel could well contribute to winning larger and more expensive tenders for heating network maintenance for her company, Kyivgradservice. After all, the company also installs plumbing systems, heating systems, and air conditioning systems. And according to Kyivenergo's estimates, over 60% of heating networks in the capital are in need of replacement.
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