Belarus to build 2m m2 of all-electric homes within five years
19 December 2022, 14:31
There are plans to build about two million square meters of all-electric houses in Belarus over the five-year period, Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich told journalists at the BelTA press center on 19 December.
One of the key tasks of the energy sector is to meet the growing demand for electricity of the real sector of the economy and of households. Much attention is paid to the electrification of the housing stock. This work is being carried out in three main directions. The first one is the construction of new all-electric apartment buildings. “In the current five-year period, about two million square meters of such housing is to be put into operation. In 2021 and January-October 2022, 563,000 square meters of all-electric houses were commissioned,” Viktor Karankevich said.
The second area of work is to switch from solid fuel to electricity for heating purposes in apartment buildings. Schedules for the five-year plan have been drawn up, they include about 100 such houses in various regions of the country.
The third task is to introduce electricity for heating and hot water supply in single-family homes. In January-November 2022, energy supply organizations received 20,900 applications for increasing electricity capacity for heating and hot water supply, of which 84%, or 17,700 applications got a positive response.
“All in all, from 2019 until now, 88,600 requests were received, of which 78%, or 69,600 got a positive response. Their number is increasing every year. The volume of electricity consumption by households in January-November 2022 increased 1.8 times year-on-year,” the minister noted.
He also drew attention to the fact that the demand for electricity for heating and hot water supply is stimulated by a number of incentives introduced by the head of state, including the possibility of reimbursing a part of electricity costs for households. According to the regional executive committees and the Minsk City Council, over the past three years (2020, 2021 and 10 months of 2022), about Br6 million was allocated for these purposes.