General Director of Russian Grids JSC Oleg Budargin took part in a meeting of the Commission on the Fuel and Energy Complex Development Strategy chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin which took place in Astrakhan today.

The meeting included representatives from the Presidential Administration, heads of the economic bloc of the government, federal authorities and agencies, heads of constituent territories as well as Russia’s fuel-producing and energy companies. Participants examined issues related to developing the fuel and energy sector of the Russian economy and implementing a host of investment projects within the sector in the Far Eastern Federal District as well as issues related to pricing policies on the internal gas market.

Russian Grids General Director also met with a collective from the Southern Interregional Distribution Grid Company (IDGC) which is part of the Russian Grids’ Group, had an operations meeting with the company administration and inspected the region’s distribution power grid complex.

During the meeting with the collective, Oleg Budargin articulated current priorities in company operations which reflect the company’s ambitions to wholly participate in implementing socio-economic development plans in the Astrakhan region.

During the operations meeting with the heads of the Southern IDGC and its branch AtrakhanEnergo, the main discussion topics included further modernising the power grid and the company’s participation in the most important investment projects in the region. Discussion also touched on a variety of other important topics related to increasing accessibility to the grid infrastructure for industrial enterprises and agriculture.

Oleg Budargin outlined a number of important goals for the meeting participants in Astrakhan which included improving the quality of work with consumers, decreasing the amount of time needed to eliminate the consequences of technological violations while also forming and developing the company’s human resources.

Together with the General Director of the Southern IDGC Vladimir Vashkevich, Oleg Budargin inspected the Network Control Centre which is equipped with up-to-date management suites and electricity dispatch as well as a host of other power facilities that underwent major repairs in 2013. Modernising the facilities has significantly increased the capacity of the region’s power lines and increased the reliability of the power supply to the consumers in the largest part of the regional centre and the rural districts.