Key events
Denis Ravilievich Moroz has been appointed as the head of the Ministry of Energy. Since 2021, Denis Moroz has held the position of Deputy Minister of Energy, and from 2016 to 2021, he led the project enterprise «NIIP BelGiproTopGaz.» The former Minister of Energy, Alexey Kushnarenko, has become the governor of the Minsk region.
The 330 kV power transmission line «Polotsk – Lukoml GRES» has been commissioned. The interstate transit connection 330 kV «Lukoml GRES – PS 330 kV Polotsk – PS 330 kV Novosokolniki» has linked the northwestern region of Russia with the energy system of Belarus.
From March 10 to 26, 2025, the first operational partnership inspection of WANO-MC took place at the Belarusian NPP. The expert group included specialists from four countries (Bulgaria, Iran, China, Russia). The World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) unites organizations operating nuclear power plants worldwide. WANO includes about 450 power units.
Work is underway on the major overhaul of the PT-60-130/13 turbine unit No. 5 and the TVF-63-2EUZ generator at the Svetlogorsk CHP branch of RUE Gomelenergo.
Tariffs for operational dispatch control services in the electric power industry, provided by the state production association Belenergo to RUE Oblenergo and the Belarusian NPP, are increasing to 94.87 BYN ($30.4) per 1 MW of installed capacity per month (an 8% increase). For owners of block stations (private companies), the tariff will be 125.3 BYN ($40.1) per 1 MW (also an 8% increase).
At RUE Brestenergo, pellet combustion is carried out by mixing wood pellets with the main fuel (wood chips). At the Pinsk CHP, pellet combustion is conducted on two steam boilers, and at the Pruzhany CHP, on one steam boiler. In 2024, 2056 tons of pellets were used as fuel at Brestenergo’s heat sources, accounting for 55% of the total consumption of fuel pellets in the Brest region.
A new 12 MW turbogenerator has been commissioned at OJSC Gomel Chemical Plant. The cost of electricity will be 0.05 rubles/kWh ($0.016/kWh), which is six times cheaper than purchased electricity. The payback period for the project is four years.
In March, there were several emergency shutdowns in the electrical and thermal networks:
- On March 4, one of the three power supplies to the «Water Intake — Northern» substation was disconnected, partially disrupting the power supply to consumers in Zhodino.
- On March 5, an emergency shutdown of the 10 kV cable line at the «Green Meadow» substation caused a brief outage on Vereskovaya Street, Sosnovy Bor Street, 1st Krivichsky Lane, and the water pumping station.
- On March 14, bad weather caused power outages in the Minsk region.
- On March 20, damage to the thermal network in Minsk disrupted heating for consumers on Panchenko Street and Sukharovskaya Street.
- On March 20, an accident in the thermal networks of the Orsha CHP branch disconnected several consumers from the heating system.
- On March 26 at 13:33, the operation of the 110 kV power transmission line was disrupted, causing power outages in several districts of the capital.
Statistics and data
«Belorusneft» plans to install about 200 more electric charging stations this year.
Starting April 1, the Malanka charging network will increase tariffs for charging electric vehicles: slow charging by 7%, fast charging by 8.9%, and connector reservation (15 minutes) by 2.10 rubles (+5%). Additionally, from April 1, a fee of 0.30 rubles/min ($0.1/min) will be introduced for using the connector after charging is complete. A free period of 20 minutes will be provided for disconnection. This will help optimize the availability of stations for everyone.
Specialists from the drilling operations management service (SUBR) have completed drilling 9 new wells. Six of them were built at the Rechitsa field, and one each at the Severo-Domanovichi, Ostashkovichi, and Davydovka fields.
In February, the rig assembly team handed over three assembled drilling rigs to their colleagues from SUBR. One rig was assembled at the Central-Malinovka and Beskopylnovka fields. Additionally, a drilling rig was relocated at the Rechitsa field. Four sites have been prepared for drilling: No. 125 Sudovitskaya, No. 124 Zolotukhinskaya, 1st Vostochnaya-Lipnyanskaya, and No. 28 Davydovka fields.
Since 2019, 123,000 technical conditions have been issued for connecting loads for the use of electricity for heating and hot water supply. In 2024, 31,000 applications were submitted. Annual electricity consumption by the population for these needs amounted to 880 million kWh in 2024. In 2025, about 1 billion kWh is expected.
In Belarus, electricity consumption is increasing annually. By the end of 2024, this figure reached 43.2 billion kWh, a 5% increase compared to 2023.
Belarus is increasing its supply of peat products to China. A contract has been signed under which 40,000 m³ of peat products will be sent to China for a total amount of $443,000.
Taking into account a comprehensive assessment of the economic situation, the oil and petroleum products market in neighboring countries, a decision was made to gradually adjust fuel prices by 16 kopecks per liter, with a step of 2 kopecks per week starting from March 15, 2025. A total of 8 such adjustments are expected. Prices have already been changed on March 15, March 22, and March 29, i.e., once a week. The total increase amounted to $0.02/liter.
Statements
«The most important thing is to update the electrical network infrastructure, taking into account the growing demand from the population and the real sector of the economy for electricity. This is 5700 km of power grids. This is the most important direction. It is related to people, electric vehicles, it is our everything,» said Alexander Lukashenko.
«We need to increase production volumes. The goal is up to 5% annually.» Lukashenko to the chairman of the Belneftekhim concern: «By 2030, produce and deliver 40 new types of products.» Nothing was said about the sales volumes and demand for these new types of products.
Topic of the Issue: Wood pellets
Fuel pellets are increasingly appearing in news and events in Belarus. This is due to the sudden emergence of the problem of overproduction of this type of fuel in the country. It is known that in 2019, the production volumes of wood pellets amounted to about 411 thousand tons, but by 2021, production had almost doubled, reaching 587.6 thousand tons per year.
The main direction of pellet use was export. Physical export volumes increased from 115 thousand tons in 2014 to 581.3 thousand tons in 2021. In 2020 and 2021, fuel pellets were almost entirely exported to the EU.
In the first half of 2022, the export of wood processing products from Belarus fell under sanctions and gradually decreased. Statistical data for this period is no longer available, but the reduction can be assessed by changes in the State Program «Belarusian Forest» for 2021–2025, adopted on January 28, 2021. The initial content of the program is unknown, but the indicators after changes on January 31, 2023, are shown in the table. These are likely the initial plans.
Later, at the beginning of 2024, changes were made to the 2023 indicators, which allowed reporting the successful completion of the program. The production volume of 36.7 thousand tons instead of 589.2 thousand tons shows the impact of sanctions on the industry and likely reflects the actual production value in 2023. Thus, it can be assumed that production volume decreased almost 15 times in 2023. However, uncertainty made it impossible to assess the future prospects of the industry. By the end of 2024, it became clear that supply resumption was not expected, and the forecast production volumes were adjusted until the end of the program. Note that the production volume data in the state program does not include all enterprises (hence the differences in data for 2021).
Nevertheless, the program for 2021-2025 still includes the creation of new capacities with production of about 150 thousand tons per year, which means these projects are likely already started and will be completed. Various solutions are being applied to save the sector: from changes in the energy-saving program, which increases the number of projects for boiler modernization with conversion to pellets, to subsidies for the population to purchase pellet boilers (up to 40% of the boiler cost) and subsidized tariffs for pellet purchases.
Материал доступен на русском языке: Энергетический дайджест Беларуси. Март 2025
