Novy Urengoy. 11 June 2008. Today, a ceremony was held to kick off the construction of a new 450 MW power unit at the Urengoyskaya TPP of OAO "WGC-1". The first cubic metre of concrete in the foundation of the new unit was laid by Chairman of the RAO UES Management Board Anatoly Chubais, Director General of OAO "WGC-1" Vladimir Khlebnikov, and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Governor Stanislav Kushnarenko.

The construction of the Urengoyskaya TPP is one of the key projects envisaged in the WGC-1 Investment Programme and is included in the RAO UES "GOELRO-2 Programme".

The Urengoyskaya TPP is the only stationary thermal power plant in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. It is located in the permafrost zone in the north of the Tyumen Region, in the areas suffering from energy shortages where there are a lot of oil- and gas-producing and refining entities. It is in these areas that electricity consumption is growing very rapidly.

After the new unit is brought on line, the capacity of the Urengoyskaya TPP will grow more 18-fold, which will help increase the volumes of electricity and heat supplied in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of the Tyumen Region and accommodate the growing region's electricity demand.

The power unit construction will be implemented in two phases, the first 320 MW will be brought on line in 2009, and in 2011, the unit will reach the target capacity of 450 MW.

The permanent equipment for the unit will be manufactured by OAO "Power Machines". In March 2008, WGC-1 and Power Machines entered into a contract to build two gas turbines (160 MW each). The price tag of the deal is about RUB3 billion.

The construction of the Urengoyskaya TPP was started in 1987, and a 24 MW start-up and reserve CHPP started to operate in 1992. In 1994, the construction was suspended. After the Urengoyskaya TPP became part of WGC-1, the company launched the work to produce an investment project designed to construct the plant.