Official: Russia needs to launch, upgrade 3,000–4,000 MW plants/yr

MOSCOW, Nov 24 (PRIME) -- Russia needs to launch or upgrade facilities producing 3,000–4,000 megawatts (MWs) of electricity a year, CEO of power producer Gazprom Energoholding Denis Fyodorov said at a forum on Thursday.

“I think that we need to introduce or modernize 3,000–4,000 MWs a year, or else our power industry with an average working lifespan of 40 years by 2015, which for a country like Russia, with the climatic conditions in which we live, is unacceptable,” Fyodorov said.

He said that there is only one year left before the price for a large amount of capacity under capacity supply agreements falls to 113,000 rubles from 500,000 rubles.

"It is utterly important for us to work out a mechanism by that time to keep the money and investment in the industry and use them for modernization or construction of new facilities," Fyodorov said.

The first thing the industry must do is to elaborate a competitive model of development.

"Several models are under discussion now. We have to choose the model," he said.

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