Experts say that the peak coldness of this winter started on December 14. At the same time, the Minister of Energy B.Choijilsuren announced that there’s no way but to limit the energy for an indefinite period. The Minister, who presented the situation at the regular meeting of the government, said, “We are working on a plan to prevent freezing and not limit the power of first-class consumers, hospitals and schools.”

The energy will be limited because of the letter sent by Russia on December 12, at 4:00 p.m.. In particular, they have reduced the maximum amount of energy to be supplied by approximately half from December 13, and said that they cannot exceed 150 MW. The Russian side said that in addition to the repair and modernization work of power plants, two plants were damaged. Despite the damage to two stations, the Russian side said that the reason for the lack of energy was that the repair and modernization work of other stations had not been completed. Russia exports energy within the framework of the contract signed with the National Dispatching Center state-owned LLC. According to this, Russia must notify one day in advance of the situation in case of a capacity shortage, and the amount and duration of the restriction should be determined.

In the first phase, the use of energy of 124 enterprises obliged by the Law on Energy will be limited during the day. In other words, the production activities of these companies will be regulated without disrupting or causing malfunctions. The total consumption of these large enterprises is 99.7 MW, and if it gets more than that, the Ministry plans to limit the consumption of about 150 soums in the central region, six provinces, and other consumers of Ulaanbaatar city for up to three hours a day. The minister’s speech confirmed that the measures to restrict consumers in five groups, one after the other, will be implemented from December 14. At the same time, Head of the Russian Section of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation between Mongolia and the Russian Federation A.A.Kozlov announced that there will be no restrictions on energy supplied by Russia soon.

Due to the situation, the Ministry of Energy formed a working group and sent them to Russia. Also, Minister B.Choijilsuren said that he is writing and trying to contact the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation. Many years have passed without being able to build a new energy plant, while we continue to talk about the fact that Mongolia’s energy consumption has exceeded its capacity many times over, and the stations are worn out and damaged. This is not a problem that suddenly appeared. It was clear that citizens would have to use candles anytime, but the government and the authorities could not calculate such a risk and ensure their readiness. It seems that they will not say anything other than to save and limit consumption in the coming years.