How heating will be billed when there is no heating: explanation from Kyivteploenergo
29 January 11:18
Kyivteploenergo has clarified how much Kyiv residents will pay for heat during the suspension of heating supplies in the capital.
This was reported by the Kyivteploenergo press service, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
How heating bills are calculated
As explained by the company, buildings with heat meters pay for the heat actually consumed according to the meter readings. In buildings without meters, heat bills are calculated based on data on periods of power outages and heat supply to customers.
“The amount of heat consumed by Kyiv in January was primarily determined by the air temperature. The average daily temperature was -0.3°C (for comparison, in December it was -0.7°C). However, power outages did not significantly affect the amount of heat consumed by Kyiv in January,” Kyivteploenergo notes.
They add that this is because the lack of electricity for four hours causes the batteries and water in the building’s circuit to cool down, and the temperature of the coolant drops by almost half.
However, after the power supply is restored, the building begins to rapidly “catch up” on heat in order to warm the internal system to its initial parameters. Such jumps occur every time the power is turned off.
“Accordingly, there are either no significant savings compared to stable consumption, or they are minimal,” Kyivteploenergo states.
According to the company, almost 90% of high-rise buildings in Kyiv have building heat meters that record the actual amount of heat consumed. Accordingly, customers pay for the gigacalories consumed by the building.
For the rest of the buildings, where it is technically impossible to install a metering device, the cost of heating is calculated based on the heat load, taking into account the actual number of hours of heat supply and the average monthly outdoor temperature.
Kyivteploenergo emphasizes that in the event of emergency power outages due to damage to infrastructure, when calculating heating costs for buildings without meters, its own data on interruptions in the operation of heat sources, information from building managers, and DTEK Kyiv Power Grids are taken into account.
For buildings with an “independent” heating system (with a heat exchanger, where the centrally supplied heat carrier does not mix with the heat carrier in the internal heating system), the fee for heat consumption is calculated based on data from the electricity distribution system operator in Kyiv. There are about 50 such buildings in the capital.
Kyivteploenergo has announced that residents or managers of these buildings can independently initiate adjustments to their bills by adding information about the heat supply scheme and a certificate of the number of hours without electricity to their written request.
Kyiv without heat
Due to massive attacks on Kyiv’s critical infrastructure, 639 high-rise buildings remain without heat.
One of the most acute humanitarian crises of this winter is unfolding in the Desnianskyi district of Kyiv, where hundreds of buildings have been left without heat amid massive Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. In conditions of frost and prolonged power outages, the heating problem goes far beyond a local accident and becomes a systemic challenge for the city.
At the same time, almost half a million people live in the district — as many as in regional centers such as Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, or Poltava.
