Moscow. 8 January 2004. RAO UES enterprises are restoring power to the cities, towns, and villages of Pskov and Volgograd regions after the power failure caused by power line breaks. These line breaks were caused by heavy snowfall and sudden changes in temperature which resulted in ice formation on power transmission lines.

To date, 35 repair crews of OAO "Pskovenergo" have restored 78 out of the 88 power transmission lines and about 1000 out of 1207 substations damaged by the severe weather in the region since the beginning of January. Power has been restored to most population centres which suffered from the power outage in the first days of January.

According to RAO UES Media Relations Department, OAO "Pskovenergo" repair teams have promptly installed mobile diesel generators at the public infrastructure facilities in Pskov region which helped prevent power outages at these facilities. Despite the very low air temperatures (-26 to -30 C), the energy workers have been able to prevent damage to the heating systems and failure of power supply to the consumers.

The crews of OAO "Volgogradenergo" are repairing the two 110kV high-voltage lines supplying electricity to Dubovsky district of Volgograd region, which suffered power outage caused by the weather. 80 repair teams of the energy company using over 150 machines are working on the overhead power lines. Work is underway to restore the poles and wires of the HV lines in Kamyshinsky, Kotovsky, Svetloyarsky, and Oktyabrsky districts of Volgograd region.

Full restoration of power to all population centres of these districts is made difficult by the continuing snowfall which result in ice formation and repeated line breaks at the already repaired transmission lines.