The court for the first time recovered a penalty from Silmash Mordashov for disrupting the supply of equipment under the program for modernizing old TPPs

The court first issued a decision to recover the penalty (514 million rubles) from Aleksei Mordashov for delayed equipment for the development of old TPPs. The turbine was intended for the Perm GRES « Inter RAO ». The “power machines” indicate that the contractors thwarted the delivery time due to restrictions during the pandemic, and hope to reduce the penalty. Lawyers doubt that the company will succeed.

In February, the Moscow Arbitration Court recovered 514.1 million rubles from power machines. In the suit of the Inter RAO structure for delaying the supply of equipment under the program for modernizing old TPPs. The decision is published in the file cabinet. Initially, Inter RAO demanded 993.3 million rubles from power machines, but the court reduced the size of the penalty.

According to the court decision, the “power machines” were supposed to put the “Inter RAO” equipment by November 1, 2021, but shifted the term almost two and a half years – until January 13, 2023. We are talking about a turbine with a capacity of 850 MW for the Perm GRES, the fourth largest thermal power plant in Russia. The power unit No. 1 was to be commissioned on January 1, 2023, but the beginning of the supply of power moved to November.

The reason for the delay “power machines” called the restrictions in production during the pandemic, which is why the subcontractors did not put cast blanks on time, should be from the court decision. The “power machines” agreed to write off the penalty, but indicated that it could not exceed 514.1 million rubles, since from April 1 to October 1, 2022 there was a government decree, which introduced a temporary ban on the accrual of penalties. “Power machines” were also asked to reduce the penalty to 140 million rubles. under Art. 333 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which gives the court such a right.

Kommersant’s Council of Market (regulator of energy markets) was informed that the possibility of transferring commissioning of the modernized unit No. 1 of the Inter -RAO Perm GRPS was provided for by the government of the government of May 20, 2022, adopted against the backdrop of toughening of sanctions against the Russian Federation. The “Market Council” clarified that the company will not pay a fine for a delay. In Inter RAO and Power Machines, they refused to comment.

Lawyers distinguish two important points in this dispute. Firstly, part of the penalty was canceled, because from its calculation the court excluded the period from April 1 to October 1, 2022, when the moratorium on bankruptcy was applied, which suspended the accrual of penalties. This meets the judicial practice that has developed during the pandemic period, says Alexander Katkov, a partner of Novator Legal Group.

The second point is due to the fact that the court did not apply Art. 333 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and did not reduce the size of the penalty. Vladislav Monakhov, senior lawyer of the Law Firm Alimirzoev and Trofimov, explains that, according to the prevailing practice, a penalty of 0.1% of the amount of debt for each day of delay is usually accepted in business circulation and is not considered excessively high. In addition, Mr. Katkov adds, the court drew attention to the fact that earlier the defendant in other cases himself proved the proportionality and validity of the penalty of 0.1% under a similar agreement. In this regard, both lawyers consider unlikely the chance of “power machines” to achieve an even greater reduction in the penalty in the appeal.

Although Briefcase Law Office Elizaveta Zvelyarovskaya admits that if the “power machines” prove the social significance of their activities and the offensive for themselves specific negative consequences due to the recovery of such a significant amount, the court of appeal may agree to reduce the size of the penalty.

In January, the director of the Ministry of Energy Development of the Ministry of Energy Andrei Maksimov pointed out that the “power machines” are delaying the supply of steam turbines by an average of two years. “Already at 2 GW, companies refused to implement projects due to delayed equipment,” TASS quoted him. According to Kommersant, at a meeting of the Government Commission on electric power industry on February 19, a shift in the input of six projects for the modernization of the TPP with a total capacity of 1.7 GW was also considered due to disruption of equipment, including “power machines” (see “Kommersant” of February 19).

Violations of the supply periods of equipment may be associated with problems in the supply of components in the conditions of sanctions, as well as with a large volume of internal order, says Igor Gerelyky, the commercial director of the Uralenergotel engineering company. “As a result, companies focus on priority state orders related to strategic development,” he says.

Anna Tybin, Anna Zanina