Today on August 15, the General Director of ROSSETI Oleg Budargin arrived in Astrakhan with an official visit and personally inspected the progress of the electricity sector's preparations for the upcoming fall-winter season. He also met with the governor of the Astrakhan Oblast Aleksandr Zhilkin.

Oleg Budargin began his visit with the substation that supplies power to the residential areas while also stopping by the city's landmarks like the Astrakhan Kremlin, opera and ballet theatre and the Zvezdniy Sports and Entertainment Centre.

All facilities within the energy infrastructure are currently undergoing maintenance and having necessary equipment replaced. The General Director met with the team and personally made sure that preparatory measures are progressing smoothly.

After visiting the energy facilities, he also met with the governor of the Astrakhan Oblast Aleksandr Zhilkin. The parties discussed the long-term prospects of developing the region's grid network, the measures to support farmers and agricultural producers proposed by ROSSETI, the progress of the preparations for the Caspian Five Summit as well as fulfilling earlier contractual obligations aimed at the socio-economic development of the Lower Volga region.

The governor noted that the rate of economic growth in the Astrakhan Oblast is clearly showcased by the constant growth in the need for more energy.

Aleksand Zhilkin noted that "The construction of residential housing in Astrakhan and the Oblast overall, the commissioning of social facilities like schools, kindergartens, modern medical centres such as the Otorhinolaryngologist Research and Clinical Centre in Astrakhan - all of this and much more would be impossible without the energy industry."

The region's head was very impressed with the work conducted by ROSSETI to develop and improve the energy sector within the Astrakhan Oblast.

The meeting's key point of focus was preparing the sector for the upcoming Fourth Summit of the Caspian Nations. Oleg Budargin told Aleksandr Zhilkin that energy workers are doing everything necessary to confirm Astrakhan's status as the Caspian Capital.

"The head of the government has tasked ROSSETI with very important objectives - to ensure a reliable and accessible energy infrastructure. Preparing for the fall-winter season is very important and challenging work, primarily for the people directly involved. Furthermore, to ensure a high level of reliability, we are using new technology, modern equipment and have optimally located centres of reserve energy power supplies in cases of extreme weather. In expanding our substitution of imported products with domestic items, today, we expand our transformer capacity to connect farmers and agricultural producers for subsidised fees under agreements with the regional administration," noted Budargin.