Moscow, 17 February 2006. Boris Vainzikher, member of the Management Board and Technical Director of RAO "UES of Russia", held in Surgut a visiting session of the UES Reliability Headquarters and a meeting on the development of the Tyumen energy system to meet the increasing energy consumption. The session and meeting were attended by officers of RAO "UES of Russia", OAO "UES FGC", OAO "UES SO-CDA", OAO "Urals and Volga IDC", OAO "Tyumenenergo", OAO "WGC-1", OAO "WGC-2", OAO "WGC-4", OAO "TGC-10", the Urals Engineering Center, RP "Uralenergotechnadzor", and officials of the Khanty-Mansiysk AO Administration, Tyumen Region Administration, and the Office of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative to the Urals Federal District.

In particular, the participants discussed the issues of improving the reliability of power supply to consumers in the Tyumen energy system, and certain aspects of operation of the power grid and generation equipment in extremely low temperatures.

As was noted at the meeting, over the past few years, the Tyumen energy system had seen an accelerating growth in power consumption. The growth averaged 5-9%, or 550-700 MW of capacity annually. The bulk of the increase in power consumption was due to the rapidly growing oil industry in the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs.

The maximum energy consumption in January 2006 amounted 10,068 MW, up 1,325 MW on the 1991 record peak load. In some areas of the Tyumen energy system, the transmission lines operate at their maximum. At the same time, when large generating equipment is repaired at power plants, the capacity consumed is greater than the capacity generated, which means that the energy system in the Tyumen Region experiences a deficit of energy instead of working with a surplus.

In order to meet the increasing demand of the rapidly growing oil and gas companies located in the territory of the Tyumen energy system, it is necessary to put into service new generation facilities and modernize the existing ones. Also, a programme to develop the power grids is to be implemented.

In this connection, the UES Reliability Headquarters instructed OAO "UES FGC", OAO "Urals and Volga IDC", OAO "UES SO-CDA", OAO "WGC-1", OAO "WGC-2", OAO "WGC-4", and OAO "TGC-10" to draft and implement a programme for operation of the Tyumen energy system during the 2006/2007 autumn-winter period, as well as a comprehensive programme for its long-term development. Also, it was emphasized that it would be necessary to concentrate key financial and technical resources on projects whose construction or modernization would help achieve a positive effect in a shortest term.