PRESS: RUSAL gets discount from Unipro to settle Berezovskaya dispute

MOSCOW, Oct 1 (PRIME) -- Russian aluminum giant UC RUSAL and power producer Unipro have agreed on direct power supplies with a discount to the market in order to settle their judicial dispute over the Berezovskaya GRES plant, Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday citing sources.

Through the discount Unipro will compensate the entire sum of the suit of 386 million rubles, while RUSAL will agree not to cancel the investment agreement, the daily said.

The long-running conflict between Unipro and RUSAL is connected with an accident at a new 800-megawatt unit of Unipro’s Berezovskaya GRES plant in February 2016. A major fire occurred at the unit several months after its launch. After it was taken out for repair and before unscheduled certification, the unit received a reduced payment for capacity –around 7%, as a result, consumers overpaid 950 million rubles for nine months of downtime. After their claims in June 2017, the Federal Antimonopoly Service initiated a case, which ended with an amicable agreement.

But RUSAL was not happy with the situation and tried to contest the overpayment in court. In July, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak ordered to settle the dispute out of court. Unipro said on Monday that RUSAL and its units dropped all claims against the company.

(64.6407 rubles – U.S. $1)

End