On January 13, 2011 the Energy Committee of the RF State Duma held a Round Table “On situation created in power supply provision of consumers of Moscow and Moscow region during autumn and winter period of 2010-2011”. Minster of Energy of RF Sergey Shmatko, Deputy Minister of Energy of RF Andrey Shishkin, Director General of IDGC Holding, OJSC Nikolay Shvets, Director General of JSC “MOESK” Andrey Konovalov, deputies of the State Duma, members of the Federation Council, representatives of governmental authorities of Moscow and Moscow region, media representatives took part in the Round Table.
Minster of Energy of RF Sergey Shmatko told the deputies about the reasons, process and results of works related to power supply restoration.
"I would like to note that during the past holidays an unique, unprecedented in its scope, recovery operation has been performed. Through all the day and night more that three thousands of specialists worked for the electric grids restoration. Thanks to the people’s working heroism we have managed to minimize consequences of such unexpected natural source anomaly by January 6 already”, said Sergey Shmatko.
The Minister highly appreciated the power engineers’ work: "All operations were performed at high technical level and in record time, though all the activities were associated with high-voltage current. I consider that this large-scale recovery operation was carried out at a good level”.
However, failures in the power supply were caused not only by abnormal weather conditions – a number of problems has accrued in the power supply system, and it is required to solve these problems within the shortest time possible. “For the moment, the plans have been developed according to which the existing problems will be resolved. We must assure the consumers that when recording such kind of anomalies in future, our response will be much more efficient than it has been recently”, said the Minister.
The wire breakages were mainly caused by the wide-spread ice-covered trees which fell onto the transmission line. In Moscow area all the forests are referred to the 1st category, and according to the applicable legislation such forests have the narrowed clearings (glades). By the specialists’ estimate, only in Moscow region about 8 thousand hectares shall be deforested in order to widen clearings for the transmission line laying.
To provide the required width of clearings it is necessary today to amend the legislation. Thus, for the purpose of developing amendments to the current legislation, a working group involving representatives of the Energy Ministry of RF, Russian Forest Management (“Rosleskhoz”) and IDGC Holding has been set up.
Besides, Sergey Shmatko marked that one should pay special attention to intensification of interaction between federal and regional authorities, and also to the distribution power grid complex.
According to the Minister, the complex can be safely and steadily developed subject to increase of the state control over the country’s power grid facilities.
Substance of the matter is that after the country’s united power system reorganization many objects of low voltage classes, for example, small electrical substations, happened to be privately owned, and their new owners often have no required experience and means for rectification of consequences of such large-scale and long-lasting accidents.
At the regional level it is required to consider the issues of distribution power grid complex consolidation comprehensively in order to provide opportunities for its objective and economically reasonable development, including settlement of the issues related to ownerless power grids.
The Minister informed also that IDGC Holding has developed and submitted to the RF Government the Program for power grid equipment renovation, scheduled for 10 years. Total volume of investments is estimated to about RUR 2,8 trillion.

A working group has been established which will resolve issued related to the grid organizations disunity. One of its tasks consists in evaluation of interaction between distribution power grid companies and territorial organizations and submission of the proposals to the Minister in the shortest possible time.
Besides, Sergey Shmatko emphasized that when preparing for the next autumn-winter period the power engineers should proceed from surplus backup categories: “We will try to take into account all the options and provide for the required quantity of generators. Now the decision on formation of special centralized divisions based on IDGC has been taken, where the required machinery will be accumulated. I think, that the issue related to generators sufficiency will be resolved jointly with the regional and municipal authorities”, answered the Minister.
Head of an emergency response centre of Minenergo of Russia, responsible for elimination of the consumers mass deenergization consequences in the Central and Volga Federal Districts, Deputy Minster of Energy Andrey Shishkin informed about the current situation created with the power supply. According to the data from Minenergo, voiced by Andrey Shishkin, today nearly all population of the region has been energized. “But the trees keep falling, and new breakages of the transmission lines are not excluded. We cannot physically cut out 6-19 thousand hectares of trees, as it is required for forest clearing. As per our information, more than 130 thousand of tress fell just onto the lines, and more than 100 thousand of trees are in so called “threatening condition”, said the Minister.
Chairman of the Committee for Energy of the RF State Duma Yury Lipatov expressed the deputies’ general readiness to consider, as soon as possible, the proposals of power engineers concerning the resolution of issues having legal nature and necessity of making changes to the current legislation. As he said, “deputies of the State Duma did not remain passive with regard to the power engineers’ problems, when the engineers marked the legislation imperfection. Specifically it concerns the whole Forestry Code with regard to functioning, construction and reconstruction of power transmission lines and power grid facilities. In December of 2010 changes to the Forestry Code were adopted, and that eliminated the substantial part of the power engineers’ problems in question. The legislative proposal has been under consideration in the State Duma, and this proposal provides for making changes to the Land Code and the Town-Planning Code in order to reduce the time of power grid facilities construction and reconstruction, to simplify the procedure of land plots assignment for their construction and use. Now the deputies of the State Duma are ready to consider all the power engineers’ initiatives, aimed at solving the problems related to the country’s power grid facilities”.
During the work of the Round Table the deputies from different factions of the State Duma addressed questions to the Minister of Energy Sergey Shmatko, Deputy Minister of Energy Andrey Shishkin and managers of energy companies.
Upon completion of the event Director General of JSC “MOESK” Andrey Konovalov answered the questions from journalists.