Today, November 13, 2009, JSC IDGC Holding received its certificate of preparedness for the 2009/10 heat deficit period. As instructed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the Russian Ministry of Energy, the work by the commissions for inspecting JSC IDGC Holding transmission entities’ preparedness for the 2009/10 heat deficit period was completed by November 12, 2009.

“Today is very important to us. Huge work has been done jointly with the Ministry of Energy, the Federal Service for Ecological, Technical and Atomic Supervision; System Operator; and the heads of Interregional Distribution Companies,” said Director General of JSC IDGC Holding Nikolay Shvets.

The commissions inspected the Company’s operating divisions and subsidiaries. The inspection covered the most important power transmission facilities, whose preparedness for the 2009/10 heat deficit period is crucial.

In the course of the commissions’ work, emergency response drills were conducted for relevant operating personnel using schedules for temporary outage in consumption. Positive results were achieved during the joint drills for interaction with the Ministry for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Response, the administrations of relevant municipal entities, the Regional Dispatching Administrations, and Generation Companies with regard to emergency response to grid failure threats posed by low air temperatures.

In the course of preparations for the 2009/10 heat deficit period, the scheduled organizational and operational arrangements have been fully made by JSC IDGC Holding transmission entities to prepare the permanent and ancillary equipment, buildings, and structures of the distribution facilities for operation during the 2009/10 heat deficit period.

Power transmission equipment was repaired or replaced in line with the priorities set for the facilities that are crucial for ensuring the system reliability of Russia’s United Power System and for supplying electricity to socially significant and vital facilities operating in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

In 2009, JSC IDGC Holding subsidiaries and dependent companies made major repairs of 799 transformers rated for 35kV–220kV, over 28 thousand distributing points and transformer substations, more than 23 thousand switches, and 17 thousand disconnecting switches. About 15 thousand stick-pedestal insulators were replaced. In addition, over 51 thousand hectares of land was cleared for overhead transmission lines.

The emergency stock of equipment and materials is complete.

The IDGC Holding Repair Program for 2009 costs about 16.7 billion rubles.

While preparing for the 2009/10 heat deficit period, JSC IDGC Holding transmission companies placed special emphasis on high-risk regions.

The Russian Ministry of Energy issued an order approving a list of high-risk regions for the 2009/10 heat deficit period and a list of measures to reduce relevant risks in those regions. The JSC IDGC Holding’s zone of responsibility covers the following high-risk regions: Kuban Power System (Southwestern Power District), Tyumen Power System (Severny, Noyabrsk, Kogalym, Nizhnevartovsk, and Nefteyugansk Power Districts), and the Power System of Khakassia.

The measures taken in 2008 made it possible to withdraw the following high-risk regions from JSC IDGC Holding’ operational coverage: Leningrad Power System, Nizhni Novgorod Power System, and 2 regions of the Tyumen Power System.

In the preparations for the forthcoming heat deficit period, special emphasis was placed on arrangement to ensure reliable power supply to socially significant and vital facilities.

Director General of JSC IDGC Holding Nikolay Shvets thanked the Commission for its objective evaluation of the efforts made by the Company’s team comprising thousands of employees to create “a sound basis for reliable operation of the distribution facilities.”

For his part, Chairman of the Commission Sergey Kochurov, Deputy Director of the Russian Ministry of Energy’s Department for Operational Supervision and Mobilization Preparation in the Fuel and Energy Sector, on behalf of the Commission wished JSC IDGC Holding successful operation in the forthcoming heat deficit period.