Shatura district authorities have started to repay their debts to MOSENERGO. This was announced at a press conference, held in Shatura at MOSENERGO's subsidiary Hydroelectric Pumped Storage Power Plant 5 (HPSPP-5). HPSPP-5 officials held the news conference, which was attended by local reporters.

At the end of January this year the Shatura district authorities owed HPSPP-5 about 9 million rubles for consumed heat energy. Four of the nine million was last year's debt (1 million according to the debt restructuring agreement), 3 million was owed for housing and social facilities, and 4.7 million for the January 2001 payment. At the end of 2000 MOSENERGO made an advance payment of 5.5 million rubles to the district's budget, which enabled the district's authorities to meet their financial obligations to the Power Company. The power people managed to find a way out of this complex situation and, due to their activities, no limits were placed on power supply during the New Year holidays. Currently the district's authorities have paid off last year's debt and have continued to make partial payments (367,000 rubles for consumed energy).

"Through our joint efforts we managed to soften the tense issue of heat energy supply to the Shatura district," said N.Temkina, head of the HPSPP-5 heat energy sales department. "We envisage that in February we'll see a breakthrough in our relations and we will move to advance payments."

According to the agreement between MOSENERGO and Shatura district administration, district authorities are required to make the next payments before February 15. The expected payment is about 6 million rubles.