Smart meters mandated in Russia proves complicity in Agenda 2030 smart grid
In federal legislation, initiatives are emerging to impose on the shoulders of owners of residential premises (including garden houses, apartment buildings, etc.) the responsibility for purchasing utility metering devices with the function of remote data transmission. Such changes are planned to be made to the Federal Law of November 23, 2009 No. 261-FZ “On energy saving and increasing energy efficiency and on introducing amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as the energy saving law), which already contains a provision on the obligations of owners residential premises to ensure the installation of metering devices. In this case, most ordinary people will not ask the question of why such a responsibility is assigned to the owners, after all, a similar norm is already enshrined in legislation and has passed all the necessary checks for legality and validity in the authorized bodies. However, a closer look at the problem only raises questions.
Thus, there is no doubt that the use of metering devices is carried out within the framework of housing relations, that is, relations related to the exercise of citizens’ right to housing. It follows from this that the responsibilities for the acquisition and use of metering devices should be enshrined in the Housing Code of the Russian Federation. However, the code only provides for the obligation to bear the burden of maintaining the premises, the common property of the owners of the premises, handling solid household waste and paying fees for major repairs. The obligation to ensure the installation of metering devices was enshrined in the law on energy conservation. What explains this move by the legislator? Probably, the legislator either did not want to indicate this obligation in the code, or he was unable to do so for some reason. This circumstance suggests that the legislator was forced to resort to creating an artificial legal structure in order to provide a formal legal basis for attributing this obligation to the owners. As a result, in essence, housing legal relations were classified as a special subject of legal regulation of legislation on energy saving and energy efficiency. This made it possible, on the one hand, to more easily legitimize the rule on such an obligation. On the other hand, the norms of the law on energy conservation subsequently began to be considered special in relation to the provisions of the Housing Code. In this regard, law-abiding citizens have no choice but to pay the appropriate fees, including for the installation of metering devices.
Today, the initiative to ensure the installation of metering devices with the function of remote data transmission looks like an ordinary legislative initiative. At the same time, it is obvious that its support will lead to another withdrawal of funds from owners to resolve issues of optimizing the provision of information on energy consumed, that is, the solution of purely administrative matters, which, within the meaning of these legal relations, must be carried out by authorized government bodies that have the necessary resources. We hope that this time the state apparatus will at least provide state support to the owners and will bear some of the costs of installing “smart” metering devices.
Let us recall that in 2018 the State Duma adopted a law according to which, from January 1, 2022, “smart” metering devices must be installed in residential and non-residential premises as old electricity meters fail. From July 1, 2020, responsibility for their installation and maintenance passes to for energy sales companies and network organizations.