Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Sadig Gurbanov presented a three-item agenda of the committee meeting that took place on 13 December.

First off, Mr Gurbanov talked about first-reading amendments to the Electrical Energy Law, telling the assembled that the pursued goal was to optimise the legal frameworks for connecting construction projects to power lines and facilitating the connexion for consumers.

The document embraces standardised regulation of such connexions and registering consumer categories as well as volumes of electricity they receive and the statuses of construction projects – such registering is done when the network connexion terms and conditions are defined. Besides, the set of amendments lays a legal foundation for the procedure whereby construction projects will be connected to power networks and have added wattage supplies. Last but not least, the Bill concerns the method for defining sums payable for the connexion services.

There is a new paragraph, too, regarding connexion of construction projects to power networks. According to that paragraph, the connexion or provision of construction projects with additional electricity supplies shall both be done on the basis of relevant contracts. Where a construction project is connected to an electricity grid, the customer shall pay for this service to either the electricity supplier or the state electricity company. Furthermore, the point of connexion is determined at the substation, transformer station, transmission line and switchboard located in the immediate vicinity of the building site or sites in each case. The building facilities of the electricity producers themselves, those facilities, ergo, which actually generate the electricity, shall be spliced up with such connexion points that are at the shortest distance from the power plant and correspond for their intended use in terms of their voltage levels and network capacity.

The document introduces the new notions of ‘electricity facilities’, ‘points of connexion’, ‘connexion fees’, ‘a connexion agreement’, ‘a transmission network’, ‘an electricity supply network (distribution network)’ and a number of others – all accompanied with relevant explanations.  

Head of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Energy Ibrahim Aghayev who was present at the committee meeting let the gathering hear his own ideas about the Bill – the one which, he stressed, had been drawn up in keeping with the 2020-2022 National Action Plan to Promote the Open Government, sanctioned with a presidential decree. Now, that plan envisages legislative harmonisation, on the part the parties managing natural gas, water and power supplies, with modern standards of those technical condition formulation norms and other applicable technical norms and requirements that such parties operate with. Besides, the plan earmarks legislative improvement of provisions for the calculation of refurbishment fees applied to the relevant infrastructure, and the determination of the total cost of such works.

Having said all that, Ibrahim Aghayev talked about the Bill’s importance for the protection of consumers’ and business people’s rights. As for the nature of the amendments at hand, the expert said it was necessary to accommodate the rules contained in the law with the standards of the day.

The committee members Mashhur Mammadov and Iltizam Yusifov made several remarks about the Bill, with Ibrahim Aghayev proceeding to clarify the areas the MPs had touched upon.

It was recommended in the end that the first-reading amendments to the Electrical Energy Law should be brought before a Milli Majlis plenum.

Going further, the committee looked at the sets of amendments to the Gas Distribution Law (in the second reading) and to the Natural Environment Protection Law (in the third reading). Both Bills, too, were cleared for the tabling at a parliamentary meeting in plenary.

Sadig Gurbanov and the committee members Naghif Hamzayev, Iltizam Yusifov and Fatma Yildirim proceeded to speak their respective minds about the picket of environmentalists, public activists and other voluntaries continuing on the Lachin-Shusha motorway in protest against the illegal development of the natural deposits in those parts of Azerbaijan where the Russian peace-making contingent are stationed temporarily. The law-makers said that the plundering of Azerbaijan’s natural wealth should be stopped and that all obstruction of a monitoring of those mineral deposits by officials of the pertaining state departments should be cleared out of the way.

The committee members Afat Hasanova, Anar Mammadov and Aliabbas Salahzade took part in the meeting as well.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis