"If people have been promised, it must be done." Lukashenko on network capacity for using electricity for heating purposes

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has instructed to more actively create conditions for using electricity for heating citizens' homes. The head of state announced this while receiving a report on the completion of the construction of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (BelNPP) and the increased availability of electricity for heating residential buildings, a BELTA correspondent reports.

The head of state noted that due to the commissioning of the BelNPP, electricity generation in the country is increasing. "We generally had enough electricity before. For industry, for agriculture, and to some extent for people. Now some, I wouldn't say excess (volumes of electricity produced. - BELTA note), reserves are appearing," Alexander Lukashenko stated.

He stated that electricity consumption will grow, and in this regard, the country has focused on supporting people. For example, this applies to the use of electricity for heating residential buildings. "We have focused on people. We looked at the heating of a settlement (in Novaya Okolitsa near Minsk. - BELTA note), which Deputy Prime Minister Sivak is building. I must say, it's a marvel - clean, neat. It can't even be compared to gas boilers and heating. I'm not even talking about coal and so on. The climate is changing, this is very important for us," the President said.

The head of state emphasized that using electricity for heating residential buildings is not only profitable but also a clean and safe technology.

"Therefore, it was right to focus on offering electricity to people. And the prices are reasonable. People say it's even cheaper than gas heating. These are incomparable things. But we are not reaching the networks (in terms of their capacity to provide this opportunity to everyone who wants it. - BELTA note) somewhere," Alexander Lukashenko noted. Currently, it is not possible to satisfy approximately 10-15% of the corresponding requests from citizens.

The head of state was assured that systematic work is being carried out to resolve this issue. And although much has already been done, it is not enough - there is a sharp increase in demand from the population.

"Therefore, we need to expand the networks. Roughly speaking, so that this wire goes directly to a person's home. If people have been promised something, it must be done. Yes, it has increased sharply. Naturally: people are not stupid, they see, they feel that this is a very profitable thing. Well, and there is electricity. We need to help our people. That's what we live and work for - to help people," the Belarusian leader instructed.

He asked to report on the current situation regarding this issue and its prospects. The question of expanding the use of electric transport is also relevant in this context. "We are developing it more and more. This is also the right thing to do. It turns out we came to our senses in time and started developing this area," noted Alexander Lukashenko.

At the same time, the President noted that despite the emergence of reserves, it is undesirable for other capacities to be idle or operated in a so-called cold mode. He cited the Berezovskaya and Lukomlskaya thermal power plants as an example. As reported to the head of state, there are options. "There are good options for loading and very beneficial for the state. In this regard, we need to continue our work," said the Belarusian leader.

Source: belta.by