Tatsiana G. Zorina, Olga I. Yurkevich

Institute of Power Engineering of NAS of Belarus, Belarus State Economic University

The article analyzes the electricity intensity of the GDP of the Republic of Belarus: the dynamics was studied taking into account different approaches to the reflection of indicators, a comparison with the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter - EAEU) was carried out, the analysis by sectors of the economy and regions of the Republic was conducted, the impact of changes in electricity tariffs and electricity consumption of the population was studied, the factors influencing the change in the electricity intensity of GDP were estimated. The analysis allowed to make conclusions about essential interrelation between the volume of GDP and electricity consumption, to determine the index of energy elasticity, on the basis of which it is possible to forecast the change of electricity consumption. It was noted that with a comparable level of electricity intensity, the Republic of Belarus has the highest level of tariffs compared to the EEU and European Union countries, which has a significant impact on the competitiveness of the national economy. It was determined that the highest level of electricity intensity in the Republic can be noted in the areas where most of the industrial production is located, the highest electricity intensity is characterized by the mining industry. It was noted that there is no direct correlation between the tariff and the volume of electric power consumption, with a general trend towards the growth of electric power consumption by organizations with a decrease in the tariff level, indicating the absence of competition on the electric power market in the republic. At the same time the dependence between these indicators for separate groups of consumers was determined, regression models of influence of tariff for electric power on the volume of its consumption were built for these groups of consumers. The research carried out in the article leads to the conclusion that increasing the volume of GDP is an effective mechanism to increase electricity consumption, which is very relevant taking into account the need to increase the volume of electricity consumption under the conditions of integration of BelNPP into the energy system of the Republic of Belarus.

electricity intensity of GDP, electric power industry, electricity consumption, competitiveness of the national economy, energy industry of Belarus