‘We had to limit our gas supplies in January because of the cold weather and thus switched to coal, which was not good financially; besides, the boilers that use coal are more complicated technically than the regular ones and require more maintenance expenses,’ TGK-10 GD Andrey Shishkin said at the press conference on Friday.

Yet, according to Mr Shishkin, the amount of coal bought from Chelyabinsk Coal Company in 2006 will remain the same as last year. ‘As for the additional coal expenses, they have already been included into the tariffs,’ Mr Shishkin said.