Working on wear and tear: regions are not fully prepared for the heating season
Thereadiness of Russian regions for the new heating season is about 75%-95%, the housing and utilities authorities of theregions informed Izvestia. Some of them still have to repair some boiler houses and networks, fuel and emergency equipment have not been purchased everywhere. The deterioration of heating system elements and abnormal frost last winter led to accidents and problems with the infrastructure of the housing and utilities sector in some regions. Experts point out that the problems of the heating complex have been accumulating for years.
How the regions are preparing for the heating season
The level of readiness of the regions for the upcoming heating season is 75-95%, regional housing and utilities authorities told Izvestia. The editorial board sent inquiries to all subjects of the country, and more than 30 responded. Only the authorities of Sakhalin and Chukotka declared that the heating complex is fully prepared for frosts.
In Komi, 95% of the housing stock, 94% of boiler houseshave beenprepared for the winter season , 100% of heating networkshave been tested, 85% of which have been replaced.
"90% of sewerage networks have been prepared, of which only 47% of the dilapidated ones have been replaced," the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the republic pointed out.
Tatarstan has formed an emergency stock of materials and equipment in order to eliminate emergency situations and prevent them.
"From 2023, twice as much money is allocated for these purposes - 160 million rubles, " they pointed out there. - The funds are directed to the purchase of equipment, materials and components for the elimination of accidents in the system of housing and communal services in municipalities. The length of utility networks in the country is 26.5 thousand kilometers, of which 32% need replacement.
The main share falls on water supply networks, their length in the republic is almost 18.5 thousand kilometers, of which 31% need replacement. As indicated in the housing and utilities authorities of the region, no more than 1% of networks are changed annually.
In Altai Krai in 2024, 6.9 billion rubles, of which 5.4 billion are budget funds, will be allocated for the implementation of measures on capital repair and reconstruction of housing and utilities facilities.
And in Dagestan, the readiness of facilities for seasonal operation in the republic averages 75%.
"It is planned to create 14.6 thousand tons of solid fuel reserves, i.e. coal, and 247.3 tons of liquid fuel," the Ministry of Construction of Dagestan told Izvestia. - Funds are envisaged for the formation of a reserve of material and technical resources for the elimination of accidents and malfunctions at housing and utilities facilities."
The heating period in the Arkhangelsk region traditionally begins in mid-September, noted the Department of Press Service and Information of the local administration. But consistently high air temperatures this year are pushing these dates closer to the end of September.
"In 2024 in the Far North and equated areas with limited period of transport accessibility in Pomorie it is planned to supply 16.8 thousand tons of hard coal - fulfilled by 63%, and 12.3 thousand tons of diesel fuel - fulfilled by 80%, " the department added. - The necessary fuel reserves are planned to be created until October 15 this year.
The administrations of cities and regions can hold management organizations responsible for violation of the deadlines for the preparation for the heating season. About it "Izvestia" reminded in the Department of housing and communal services of the administration of Perm.
"Territorial bodies of the administration of the city of Perm carried out 144 calls of managing organizations to draw up protocols on administrative offenses - said there. - 87 protocols on administrative offenses were drawn up, the amount of fines on the results of consideration of which amounted to more than 650 thousand rubles. At present, the work on bringing guilty persons continues".
What problems led to accidents in the housing and utilities sector?
The heating season begins when the average daily air temperature is below +8 °C for five days, Alexander Shuvalov, head of the Meteo forecasting center, told Izvestia.
- So far we can talk about it in Norilsk, possibly Magadan region. But in the south of Siberia it is too early to talk about the heating season," he said.
The lowest air temperature in September was observed in Chita region, where at night the thermometer columns dropped to -8 °C, added Tatyana Pozdnyakova, a leading specialist of the information agency Meteonovosti. Night frosts were also recorded in the European part of the country, where thermometers dropped to -4 °C in some regions.
In the Transbaikal Territory, as the regional Ministry of Housing, Energy, Digitalization and Communications told Izvestia, the heating season in the northern districts began in early September, and heat began to arrive in most districts on the 18th.
At the same time, it noted that the infrastructure of the housing and utilities sector in the Zabaikalsky Krai is characterized by a high level of wear and tear - 80%.
"The problems are systemic in nature and are relevant to the housing and communal complex not only in Zabaikalsky Krai, but also in the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts as a whole," the ministry said.
This was also stated in other subjects.
"The main causes of accidents in the previous heating periods were and still are high wear and tear of heating networks and insufficient financing of their renovation", - say the Ministry of Construction of Komi.
For example, in the heating period of 2023-2024 in the Rostov region, the causes of accidents were the emergence of defects in heat networks that did not show themselves during hydraulic tests. And in the Novgorod region recorded two main causes of heat supply disconnections - leakage on the networks and violation of power supply.
"In December 2023, due to equipment damage at the Omsk CHPP-5 of TGK-11 JSC, there was a decrease in the parameters of the heat carrier supplied to apartment buildings in the city of Omsk, and more than 400 thousand residents were left without heat," the regional Ministry of Energy told Izvestia. - One of the reasons for the incidents at CHPP-5 is the high wear and tear of the equipment.
In St. Petersburg during the past heating season, almost 3.4 thousand technological violations were recorded on outdoor networks, 40.7 thousand apartment buildings were disconnected.
In Bashkiria from October 2023 to March 2024 there were 1372 emergency situations.
Rostechnadzor authorities are conducting inspections of regions on readiness for the heating season, but they have not yet been completed, the agency said.
How the problem of wear and tear of heating networks is solved
Large-scale wear and tear of infrastructure in the regions has been accumulating for years and even decades, believes an expert of the project "People's Front. Analytics" Pavel Sklyanchuk.
- We should realize that emergencies and accidents on utility networks occur locally. Last season, the factor of fan shutdown worked, because the boiler house, if we talk about the Moscow region, was out of order, - added Pavel Sklyanchuk. - These are energy facilities, part of a complex engineering infrastructure. Whereas in most cases there are just pipe bursts, which are quickly repaired. We can say that they patch the holes.
Natalia Zubarevich, an economist and professor at Moscow State University, confirmed the problem of insufficient investment in the infrastructure of the housing and utilities sector.
-The networks have been worn out for decades, but the payments we make are not enough to renew them, " she explained.
The issues of housing and communal services belong to the municipal level, added Pavel Sklyanchuk.
- All this lies on the balance sheets of municipalities. There is goodwill on the part of the federal government to maintain or repair infrastructure in some remote municipalities," he said.
The human factor, according to Sklyanchuk, affects only the preparedness of emergency recovery teams and their knowledge of how to quickly localize and eliminate an accident.
-As a rule, at this level of wear and tear, it is difficult to predict where it will burst, " he explained. - In case of accidents, the mechanism of recalculations is complicated and biased, because resource supplying organizations try to minimize their additional costs for the return of funds to consumers, said Pavel Sklyanchuk.
This is primarily due to the fact that there are certain amounts of useful resource generation, the expert explained. That is, if generation has already been produced and gigacalories have been generated in large quantities, then the task of energy companies is to collect money from management companies that service houses. And they, in turn, should collect money from the population. Therefore, compensations are made in minimal values, believes Pavel Sklyarchuk.
According to him, recalculations are often made not in real money, but against payment for utilities in the next periods, when tariffs may increase. At the same time, there is no talk about compensation for moral damage to people who were freezing in their apartments.
- It is necessary to bring the law on consumer protection in the sphere of housing and communal services into a separate regulation, - believes the expert. - Since we recognize communal resources as services, we should look at the quality of these services. If water is clean, then it should be clean, if heat is supplied, then it should be in the required quantities, if electricity is supplied, then it should be without fluctuations.
If such legal regulation appears, there will be separate housing lawyers, who in the interests of a wide range of people, for example, tenants of the whole house, will be able to form claims and recover compensation for moral damage, summarized Pavel Sklyanchuk.
