Ulyanovskenergo, JSC, Provider of Last Resort (POLR) in the Ulyanovsk region, once again failed to meet the deadline of payments for electricity transmission services. The payment for the services rendered in November was to be made by Ulyanovskenergo on December 20, but the money has not yet been received on the accounts of IDGC of Volga, PJSC. Thus currently, the overdue receivables of Ulyanovskenergo, JSC amount to 1.052 billion rubles. Despite the fact that Ulyanovskenergo systematically violates the payment discipline and fails to fulfill contractual obligations dating from 2014, the total amount of debt has never reached such a critical level before.

As a result of chronic violation of payment discipline by Ulyanovskenergo, banks including factoring companies refuse to provide credit resources to the Company in such an unstable financial condition. This demonstrates the critical financial situation of the Provider of Last Resort and its insolvency. The arisen cash deficiency of Ulyanovskenergo, JSC in the situation of credit lines absence, leads to inability of the POLR to perform the contractual obligations of payment to IDGC of Volga, PJSC and an additional increase in overdue receivables, which ultimately places in question the possibility of execution by the Company its functions of the Provider of Last Resort in general. At that, the burden of non-payment rests on IDGC of Volga, which due to the deficiency of funds because of the debts of the largest service consumer has to make agreements of counter-claim offsetting and assignment of debt with the territorial grid companies.

 During this time, Ulyanovskenergo actually carries on business activity at the expense of the electric grid company, making use of its impunity, because, despite its legal right, given by the Law to the electric grid companies, to limit electric supply to the malicious non-payers, to apply such an effective measure to the POLR is virtually impossible.

The issue of multimillion debts of the retail supply company is monthly placed for consideration to the Headquarters for electrical safety under the Government of the region, but the company ignores the decisions of the HQ. Shareholders of Ulyanovskenergo owning the largest stock of shares of POLR, including Volzhsky Gorod, LLC (24.12% of shares), Togliatti–Finance, LLC (13.97% of shares), Toaz-Dioxide, LLC (14.41% of shares), sit on their hands and don't take any measures to solve the financial problems of their own enterprise. There is a justified question: where does the money, monthly obtained by POLR from the consumers of electricity, go? Besides, until now the financial stability of Ulyanovskenergo, JSC has not been defined, as well as its feasibility of further execution of POLR functions in the territory of the Ulyanovsk region.

In this situation, it is necessary to take comprehensive measures to prevent destabilization of the infrastructure component of the regional economy: the prosecution of major shareholders of Ulyanovskenergo, JSC, the financial stability audit of the POLR and control of the cash flow, the involvement of supervisory and law enforcement agencies for organizing the prevention of inappropriate expenditures.