Moscow, 15 August. Today Anatoly Chubais, the chairman of the board of directors of RAO "UES of Russia", met with the Russian and foreign media. The meeting was devoted to the large-scale blackout, which occurred in the USA and Canada on August 14. -‘It’s premature to conclude that there have been any technological causes of the blackout.’- A. Chubais emphasized. –‘Experts of RAO “UES of Russia” are thoroughly studying the available information on the blackout and its possible causes. RAO “UES of Russia” has already asked some relevant US bodies and institutions responsible for energy production to provide complete information on what could cause the emergency, how the situation is developing and what measures are being taken to stabilize the situation.’ ‘Yesterday’s incident is not an exception in the history of the US and Canadian energy networks.’- A. Chubais said. ‘In November 1965 30 million people in 7 American states and two Canada’s provinces the electricity supply was cut off. In July 1977 New York was without electricity for 25 hours due to a lightning strike, which damaged a power transmission line. In October 1997 unidentified plotters shut down electricity in San Francisco. Back in December 1998 there was no electricity for 7 hours in San Francisco, and in July in New York the power outage lasted for 19 hours.

Considering this, the chairman of the board of directors of RAO “UES of Russia” underlined that Russia’s energy systems have never experienced similar electricity blackouts. He has also pointed out some significant differences between the American and Russian energy systems in terms of their reliability, management and availability of automatic emergency-prevention equipment and the relay safety system. ‘This has always been a priority for RAO “UES of Russia”,- A. Chubais said. The basic principle of the electricity industry reforming in Russia is reliable and safe operational management of the industry. Nonetheless, A. Chubais believes that ignoring the existing problems experienced by Russia’s electricity industry is unforgivable.

A. Chubais stressed that in any country an electricity industry has always been hazardous in terms of possible emergencies and accidents. Therefore, what happened to the US and Canada on August 14 should be well studied and thought out. ‘RAO “UES of Russia” held an emergency meeting on August 15 after which I signed an order to set up a team to analyze the causes of the blackout in the USA and Canada, to reveal its economic and technological causes and the unmanageable development of the situation’, - A. Chubais informed. The team has to provide a conclusion on the development of the outage, as well as proposals on how to improve the efficiency and reliability of the Unified Energy System of Russia, including measures aimed to improve the existing automatic emergency-prevention systemsand legal acts on electricity industry, as well ascalculate necessary investments to raise the reliablilty of RAO “UES of Russia.

Power transmission lines damaged in some areas of the Vologograd Region at night, August 12, will be completely fixed in the coming two days. Moscow, August 13.

The power transmission lines damaged by a stormy wind and fierce thunderstorm that came across the Volgograd Region at night, August 11-12, will be completely fixed in the coming 2 days. By the evening of August 13 power engineers have repaired 206 power transformation sub-stations. In Volgograd the damaged power lines were fixed almost in no time, because the damage caused by the storm was not as devastating as in other areas of the region. Currently power is being supplied to 11 populated localities. To restore power supply to socially important institutions (in- and out-patient clinics, maintenance services) is primarily important for the power engineers. Due to the stormy wind, which blew at the speed of 30 km per second, transmission towers of 220 KV, six 110 KV, twelve 35 KV BPTLs, three hundred eighty 10 KV and three hundred sixty five 0,4 KV transmission lines were damaged. Two hundred eighty eight power transformation sub-stations and more than 80 km of power transmission lines were dead. The overall damage caused to OAO “Volgograd energo” came to 15 million rubles. Two subsidiaries “The Volgograd energo” and “The Pravoberezhniye energo” suffered most of all. The first one supplies electricity to 4 districts of the city of Volgograd: Krasnoarmeysky, Voroshilovsky, Central and Krasnooktyabr’sky; and also to Svetloyarsky and Kalachayevsky areas. The second one generates electricity to consumers in Gorodischensky, Chernishevsky and Frolovsky areas. 20 built-up areas, with the population of more than 500 000 people, were deprived of electricity. 19 repair crews and 3 machine service crews are being involved with restoration works. The situation is aggravating because the majority of the damaged transmission limes is difficult to access. For this reason, it is very hard to deliver necessary equipment and materials to the sites.