OREANDA-NEWS. September 16, 2009. The Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation found that "Penza City Electric Network" [PGES] CJSC violated the antimonopoly legislation and confirmed validity of the decision made by the Office of Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Penza region (OFAS Russia), reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

In May 2008, the Penza OFAS Russia, upon a petition of "Domostroitel" OJSC and "Lvovsky" Housing Cooperative, processed a case against "Penza City Electric Network" CJSC, that had violated the antimonopoly legislation by imposing unfavourable conditions when it had connected power receivers (electric power installations) to electric networks.

Investigating the case, the Penza OFAS Russia established that "PGES" CJSC had included in the technical conditions for power supply of residential houses the requirements to developers for carrying out construction and other works on utility connections owned by "PGES" CJSC; as well as the requirement that the issued technical conditions would be valid only if a subsidiary of "MRSK Volga" OJSC - "Penzaenergo" (the adjacent network organization) granted technical conditions for allocating power.

The current regulations state that if there are an approved Investment Programme for developing the power-supply system and established connection rates, the connection charges are determined depending on the subscribed demand and connection rates. According to the regulations, "PGES" CJSC should agree upon power reserve or transmitting capacity of electric network with its adjacent network organization rather than demand it from developers.

The Penza OFAS Russia found the above actions of "PGES" CJSC unreasonable and classified them as abusing dominant position and violating Part 1 Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition". OFAS Russia imposed an administrative fine (505,500 Rubles) upon the company.