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Hydropower Station in Russian Far East Steps Up Capacity

Posted on: Sunday, 6 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Excerpt from report by Russian news agency Interfax

Talakan (Amur Region), 6 November: The fourth hydropower generating unit of Bureya GES [hydroelectric power station] went on stream today, with a capacity of 330 MW.

The chairman of the Unified Energy System of Russia [UES] board, Anatoliy Chubays, attended the ceremony to commission the unit.

Speaking at the ceremony at the Bureya GES, Chubays said that the commissioning of the fourth set had brought the station's working capacity up to 1,000 MW.

"The important task now is to set in motion work to ensure that the fifth and sixth generating units go on stream in 2007," Chubays said.

[Passage omitted]

The fifth and sixth hydropower generating units are to be commissioned in 2007 and the construction of the station is scheduled for completion in 2008.

UES funded the first four generating units through its investment programme, which is made up from the company's rental fees. Project financing is to fund the completion of the fifth and sixth units. Chubays announced earlier that export contracts for the sale of electricity generated by the future hydropower generating units would be used to guarantee the credits to complete the construction.

According to UES, long-term contracts have been concluded between the import-export operator in Russia - the Inter-UES closed joint- stock company (60 per cent belongs to the energy holding and 40 per cent to the Rosenergoatom nuclear power concern) - and the Chinese side. These contracts envisage a gradual increase in the amounts of electricity exports from Russia to the developing border areas of China's northeastern provinces. Under the contracts, by 2008-09 electricity exports are to grow from the current 0.5bn kWh a year to 5bn kWh.

After construction is completed and all six power units are on stream, Bureya GES will have a set capacity of 2,000 MW, and will generate 7.1bn kWh of electricity a year.

UES holds 78.51 per cent of the charter capital of the Bureya GES joint-stock company, and the Federal Hydrogenerating Company (GidroOGK, a 100-per-cent daughter company of UES) holds 15.9 per cent [figures as given].

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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