Moscow, 25 December 2006. Today, an official ceremony was held to bring Power Unit 2 on line at the Chelyabinskaya CHPP-3. The ceremony was attended by Chelyabinsk Region Governor Pyotr Sumin and Chairman of the Management Board of RAO "UES of Russia" Anatoly Chubais.

The Chelyabinsk Region is one of Russia's major industrial regions with a rapidly developing economy. As a result, the region is seeing a significant growth in electricity consumption. In 2006, the electricity demand in the region increased by 7% compared to the previous year, which exceeds the average growth rate of about 5% in the whole of Russia.

The new power unit at the Chelyabinskaya CHPP-3 will help improve the reliability of power supply to households and industrial consumers in the region. The unit has a capacity of 180 MW of electricity and 260 Gcal/h of heat. The new unit will double the power plant's electric capacity to 3 billion KWh yearly and increase heat generation by one third. It is especially important during the winter period, because the Chelyabinsk Region is one of the so-called "peak load regions", which, due to the increasing electricity consumption, face the possibility of electricity capacity shortfalls during the load peaks.

In order to ensure transmission of the power generated by the new power unit at the Chelyabinskaya CHPP-3, OAO "UES FGC" has recently put into operation the region's largest Kozyrevo Substation (500 kV) and Novometallurgicheskaya Substation (220 kV), as well as transmission lines which connect them.

The newly commissioned power unit 2 of the Chelyabinskaya CHPP-3 and the transmission lines and substations will significantly improve the reliability of power supply to the regional consumers and create the conditions for further development of the regional industries, primarily ferrous and non-ferrous sectors, machine building and metal working industries, and the railroad transport sector. Also, the new power unit will ensure reliable heat supply to Chelyabinsk's existing residential areas and those under construction.

The project to build the new power unit was launched back in 1996, but was suspended due to insufficiency of funds. A new impetus to the construction of the plant's second unit was given by the launch of the electricity reform in Russia and the creation of interregional generating companies capable of raising significant investments. In 2005, the management of OAO "Chelyabinsk Generation Company", which owns the Chelyabinskaya CHPP-3, was transferred to OAO "TGC-10". During that year, a decision was made to complete the construction of the power plant's second unit. OAO "TGC-10" allocated RUB2 billion in own funds and borrowings to finance the project.

Comprehensive pre-launch testing of the equipment at power unit 2 of the Chelyabinskaya CHPP-3 was started on 19 December 2006. During the testing, the new unit is to be run at nominal load for three days. When the two power units were stopped at the Reftinskaya TPP because of the fire over the night of 20 December 2006, the Urals Energy System utilized all of its resources to compensate for the loss of power, including the new generating unit at the Chelyabinskaya CHPP-3.

A new, third power unit 3 at the Chelyabinskaya CHPP-3, which will have a capacity of 220 MW of electricity and 160 Gcal/h of heat, is scheduled to be brought on line by OAO "TGC-10" in 2010.