Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Prime Minister Ch.Saikhanbileg delivered a report at a plenary meeting of the parliamentary session on Friday on results of measures and works done last year in the energy sphere.

He said the cabinet last year focused on renovation of the infrastructure, especially on the energy industry, a basis of the national economic development. In order to provide families with reliable, standard and affordable energy sources, the government took complex measures in six directions. First of all, the government worked out bills for refining the legal environment for the energy sector, including a draft law on energy saving, and got it passed by parliament. In addition, parliament adopted last year a state policy on energy to be realized through long- and short-term programmes, the Premier said.

He also talked about an approval of a governmental decision which aims to promote consumption of electric heating devices in ger districts in order to reduce air pollution in the city.

Concerning the big construction in the energy sector, the Premier pointed out that a preparation is underway to realize projects on thermal power stations in the capital city, in Baganuur city, in eastern region and near the Tavantolgoi mine.

Projects will be implemented to construct the “Eg” River’s hydropower station, to augment capability of Erdenet city’s thermal power station, to build overhead electric lines from Ulaanbaatar to Dundgobi’s Mandalgobi soum with a source from a soft-loan from China. Other projects will be implemented with a soft-loan from the Republic of Korea to construct heating sources and piplines in nine aimags, Saikhanbileg said.

At a national level in 2015, construction and assembling works of 66 projects and measures were done with a financing from the state budget and the Development Bank of Mongolia.

In frames of the energy industry and actions, it has been calculated that seven billion 45 million 167 thousand KW/hour electricity was processed within the general energy system of Mongolia according to pending results. It was planned to produce seven billion 288 million 488 thousand KW/hour electricity in 2015, the Premier said.

In the previous year, Mongolia imported electricity of one billion 436 million 700 thousand KW/h. Some 70% of the electricity was imported from China, 22%--from Russia, he said.

The PM went on that the cabinet set goals to reduce financial loss of the energy sector by making energy price and tariff more concrete, liberating the electricity price and harmonizing them with the standards of market. Thanks to performing specific regulations in the energy tariff, the energy sector for the first time worked without financial deficit in the last decade, Saikhanbileg highlighted.

Then, he talked about some measures taken for introducing a system of flexible and variety tariff of energy.

Saikhanbileg said the city’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th thermal power stations, and power plants in Darkhan and Erdenet will be partly privatized, and that money from the privatization will go to renovating of the techniques and technologies and increasing the capability of coal exploitation.

He also touched upon external relations of Mongolia in the energy sphere. For example, a soft-loan contract has been signed with China to increase the overhead electric lines as well as the “Shivee-Ovoo” thermal power station. Mongolia will receive a non-refundable aid of USD 30 million from international organization for a project after joining the “Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries Program” (SREP), he said.

The Premier said the government set a goal called “Adequate energy” and plans to start construction in the energy sector within some mega-projects.