Winter and autumn period 2010-2011 has been summed up

All-Russia meeting with heads of power companies and headquarters on safety of electric power supply in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation took place on 21 April 2011 in the Pillar Hall of the Unions. It was devoted to the results of implementation by the electric power industry entities of the autumn and winter period 2010 - 2011 and to the tasks in the field of preparation for the forthcoming autumn and winter period.

Taking part in the conference were the representatives of the Council of Federation, State Duma, Government of the Russian Federation, Energy Industry Ministry of Russia, regional authorities, heads of generating, electric grid and energy selling companies.

The representatives of the upper and lower chambers of the Russian Parliament addressed the participants with the opening speech. Yury Lipatov, Chairman of the Energy Industry Committee of the State Duma in the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation emphasized that the autumn and winter period 2010-2011, which had passed in abnormal weather conditions, had revealed many problems for the power specialists of the country. At the same time he stressed that the members of parliament “appreciate the dedicated work of the repair brigades of power specialists, who conducted the work on restoration of the damaged power lines and restoration of supply of electricity to consumers in complicated weather conditions”. The head of the Duma Energy Industry Committee also emphasized the large-scale work performed by the Energy Industry Ministry of the Russian Federation on arrangement of recovery works. Mr. Lipatov emphasized the necessity of improvements of the legislative and normative-legal base ensuring the functioning of the sector and specified that “The State Duma is ready together with power specialists to amend the laws aimed to ensure reliable and uninterrupted supply of electricity to the enterprises and population of the Russian Federation.”

Sergey Shmatko, Minister for Energy Industry of the Russian Federation read out the opening speech of I. Sechin, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Government. After that, the head of the Energy Industry Ministry officially awarded the power men, who took an active part in liquidation of the consequences of acts of nature in December 2010 - January 2011. The major part of the awards, badges, certificates of honour and letters of gratitude of the Energy Industry Ministry of the Russian Federation were presented to the employees of JSC “MOESK”. Stepan Todirka, Chief Engineer of Moscow Cable Grids – the branch of JSC “MOESK” was awarded with the Order of Honour. The Certificates of Honour of the Energy Industry Ministry of the Russian Federation were presented to Roman Voinov, Deputy Technical Director of JSC “MOESK” for Dispatching Control; employees of Western and Eastern Electric Grids: Georgy Belousov, Alexander Zherebtsov, Alexander Loktionov, Gennady Lyskovtsev, Oleg Mahonkov, Alexander Perepechko. The Letters of Gratitude of the Energy Industry Ministry of the Russian Federation were presented to Igor Kuznetsov, Deputy Technical Director of JSC “MOESK” for Electric Grid Maintenance, employees of Northern, Southern, Central Electric Grids: Anatoly Zaharov, Boris Korolev, Gennady Lobanov, Anatoly Misyuryaev, Alexander Stepanov, Sergey Sharapov and Valeria Storchevaya.

According to Sergey Shmatko’s estimates, as a result of the act of nature “the main feature of the losses is not millions; now the amount of RUR 1.3 billion is mentioned. The primary goals of MOESK are to restore the trust of the Moscow Area consumers as soon as possible acting professionally.”

In his interview to journalists, Andrey Konovalov, General Director of JSC “MOESK” noted that the volume of the repair fund of JSC “MOESK” in 2011 has grown by RUR 700 million. The total amount to be spent by the company during preparation for the autumn and winter period 2011 - 2012 for repairs will be RUR 5.2 billion.

Andrey Shishkin, Deputy Minister for Energy Industry of the Russian Federation noted in his address the dedicated work of the employees of JSC “MOESK” in the process of liquidation of the consequences of ice-storm and emphasized the necessity to bring the OL protective routes in compliance with the condition meeting the norms of safety. He also named restoration of the demand for electricity to be the prominent feature of the last AWP. AWP growth was 1.6% for 6 months; meanwhile the temperature was on the average 4 degrees higher than during the last period. And the year 2010 was completed with the growth of 4%, according to Andrey Shishkin.

According to Deputy Minister for Energy Industry of the Russian Federation, it is required to hold objective estimation of the activity of the territorial grid entities (TGE) and head for their association and transfer to be managed by the companies of IDGC Holding.

The theme of consolidation of TGE was developed by Nikolay Shvets, General Director of IDGC Holding, OJSC in his address to the meeting. According to his assessment, the constituent entities of the Russian Federation have been recently experiencing the process of increase in the number of the territorial grid entities, which is uncontrolled by the federal level. Now there are no mechanisms of control over formation of investment programs of such entities. Possible ways of solution of this problem may be creation of the self-regulated entities, transfer of TGE to the property of IDGC, conclusion of concession agreements (leasing out of grid assets to IDGC/DGC). “Consolidation of territorial grid assets will allow to lower the operational and investment costs greatly, improve reliability and controllability of the distribution grid, constrain rates of growth of tariffs for the end user,” the head of IDGC Holding emphasized.