Heat generation costs require adequate measures for conserving heat

The rise in heat production costs entails adequate measures for conserving the heat. Though Termocom SA decreased the losses in the network from 36% in 2001 to 20% in 2005, the fifth part of the heat is used to melt the snow and not to heat the apartments, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting an analysis of the Independent Analytical Center “Expert-Grup”. Measures should be taken to conserve the heat in apartment buildings and this is the task of the City Hall and of the dwelling owners associations. According to analysts of Expert-Grup, the dispute about the heating charge between the Chisinau City Hall and Termocom SA tends to become a political scandal. The situation seems abnormal because the heat supplier is formally subordinated to the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC). The charge of 233 lei is evidently inappropriate and much lower than the charges in the towns of the region. The heating charge in Balti for instance is 634 lei per Gcal, in Bucharest (Romania) – the equivalent of 546 Moldovan lei, in Iasi (Romania) – the equivalent of 620 Moldovan lei, in Odessa (Ukraine) – the equivalent of 358 Moldovan lei, in Kiev (Ukraine) – 180 lei, the executive director of Expert-Grup, Valeriu Prohnitchi said, when presenting the analysis at a meeting of the Economic Press Club. The experts say that the real expenses of producing heat in Chisinau should be assessed by a modern audit and an independent financial audit carried out by an international company with irreproachable reputation and not by joint commissions whose members have contradictory interests. The modern and financial audits will reveal the real costs incurred by the heat supplier. According to Expert-Grup, the major objective of Termocom SA should be to provide services of a high quality. But this can happen only when the real charge is fully paid. As the vulnerable groups of people will not be able to pay it, the experts recommend reviewing the subsidization policy so that only the needy persons get subsidies, not all the residents of Chisinau as it is done at present. “A charge of 540 lei when the consumption in an apartment during the cold season is about 1.2-1.5 Gcal a month can be paid by a family on an income of 8,000 lei,” Valeriu Prohnitchi said. Expert-Grup considers that the heat metering system should be changed and the supplier and the residents should sign direct contracts.