“Vedomosti”: “Build everything according to plan”
All the plans for developing power generating capacity must be fulfilled, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said yesterday: "We cannot afford to be late in developing the power industry. Russia should build 10 GW in 2010-2011," the Prime Minister said. The plan includes all generating capacity, private and public, thermal, hydroelectric and nuclear power plants, said an Energy Ministry official. Russia built 13 GW of generating capacity in the last ten years, the Prime Minister recalled. It means that the rate of new capacity construction should be accelerated four times.
The RAO UES Russia plan for launching new stations was more ambitious: 186-236 GW in 2006-2020. That would have required the launching of 12.4-15.7 GW a year. Investors purchasing the shares of generating companies from RAO UES pledged to fulfill their investment programmes. But when the crisis broke out the owners of OGKs and TGKs (generating companies) asked the government to change the plans because of the drop in energy consumption (by 6.4% in 10 months of 2009). Some have already been permitted to reschedule construction while not changing the end targets. However, the final version of the plan has yet to be made, and the Energy Ministry and the "system operator" have not disclosed the interim data.
"Various ideas are floated arguing that it is unreasonable for new investors to invest the money they pledged during the reform <...>. These arguments are groundless, "Putin said yesterday. The figure of 10 GW in 2010-2011 is a forecast that takes into account adjustments of investment programmes, says director-general of the Power Industry Balance Forecasting Agency (APBE), Igor Kozhukhovsky. Assuming that state-owned RusHydro, Rosenergoatom, Inter RAO and RAO ES Vostoka build 4.06 GW in 2010-2011 (according to APBE data), OGKs and TGKs will account for nearly 60% of new construction (or 5.94 GW). But RAO's plans for the private sector were 4.4 times that amount, 23.1 GW, Alfa Bank analyst Alexander Kornilov points out.
Anna Peretolchina
