Will Russia have enough electricity for all its neighbors?

Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Vzglyad.ru, whether Russia could itself be trapped in an energy shortage due to the growth of electricity exports.

For the first time in a long term, Kazakhstan has turned to Russia with a request for commercial electricity supplies, said Boris Kovalchuk, Chairman of the Inter RAO board (operator of electricity export and import). According to him, this happened against the background of "problems at generation facilities, unscheduled repairs, as well as the growth of mining farms."

Another reason for the resumption of imports of Russian electricity may be that it turns out to be cheaper than launching existing power units in the country, due to high fuel consumption and high operating costs, Kondratiev adds.

Our electricity is bought by the Baltic countries, Mongolia, China and others. Georgia returned to this market, and electricity supplies to Armenia and Turkey began. Finland will increase its exports from Russia this year to a record level of 2010.

“For example, the Baltic countries have greatly increased the import of electricity from Russia and Belarus. Although they could increase its production at their own gas power plants, at current gas prices it is so expensive that it is better to buy ready-made electricity from Russia,” the expert explains.

True, the Kazakh case is unusual, because Kazakhstan is closer to Russia in terms of regulating prices for electricity and fuel.

“This means that Russia may also have problems with clandestine cryptocurrencies mining because of cheap electricity, which the governor of the Irkutsk region complained about,” Kondratiev does not rule out.

There is no need to be afraid that, due to the growth of exports, Russia itself will find itself in the trap of an energy deficit. Because, unlike the European Union, Russia has serious reserve capacities that can quickly start generating electricity at extremely high demand.