'The energy issue is vital to the long-term development of both the Urals and the entire country. Chelyabinsk Region has nearly reached its highest consumption figures recorded in 1990. A few years ago, our electricity consumption only grew by about 2% a year on average, whereas last year, the figure went up by 6.86%,’ Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin announced at a meeting of the Council under Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District.

'Both the consumption and shortage of electricity are going to increase alongside with the economic growth. The region’s industrial production output rose by 13.9% in January-May 2007, which is why we are now approaching a critical consumption point. It’s actually a good thing in general, as economic growth stimulates energy investments and gives investors the guarantee their money will pay off. We kept this in mind when signing our agreement with RAO UES of Russia. This agreement is a very important strategic document; as a matter of fact, it’s one of RAO UES of Russia’s largest investment projects, and they have already started doing things,’ the Governor said.

'One sore point we have here is the use of local coal. Power suppliers still tend to use less of it. It’s true that TGK-10 has been fulfilling the agreements we’ve made and even managed to raise the consumption of Chelyabinsk coal by 100,000 tons; however, OGK-3 only says it would use our coal but uses natural gas instead. This is very alarming for our mining areas. The regional miners are prepared to produce at least 4 million tons of coal a year, but they do need the stable sales. We hope OGK-3 will actually bring its fuel spending in compliance with the agreement we have with this company,’ Mr. Sumin said.

'The need for more electricity is only part of the problem, though. We have been experiencing acute shortage of power transmission capacity since 2004. People put up industrial sites as well as a tremendous amount of housing; the workload is inadequate, which is why we have power cuts and emergencies. This makes the electricity supply in the region very unreliable. Having to meet the liabilities listed in the agreement with RAO UES of Russia has served as a great catalyst in terms of renovating our power engineering facilities,’ the Governor observed.