Within the limits of a working meeting, IDGC of North-West's General Director Alexander Kukhmay and Head of the Republic of Karelia Andrey Nelidov spoke about cooperation of power specialists and authorities in respect of realization of the program.

A number of the districts in Republic of Karelia have faced necessity of construction of new 110-220 kV feed centers and 110 kV lines to ensure the possibility of connecting new consumers, disaggregating 35 kV grids, removing grid and regime restrictions. Such information is included into the Program of the Republic of Karelia's Electric Power Industry Perspective Development for the Period till 2015.

IDGC of North-West's General Director Alexander Kukhmay and Head of the Republic of Karelia Andrey Nelidov discussed the issues of cooperation of power specialists and authorities as regards realization of the Long-Term Grid Complex Development Program within the limits of an official meeting. Consultations of the heads were held in Petrozavodsk.

"Karelenergo" branch of IDGC of North-West developed the "Plan of 35-110 kV Electric Grids Perspective Development" in order to develop the distribution grids. Realization of the Plan will be carried out within the limits of the long-term investment program of the branch "Karelenergo".

First of all, the investments into development of the grid complex, which are estimated in RUR 4.4 billion till 20105, will be allocated to provide for elimination of capacity deficiency in the Republic of Karelia by means of overflow from the Vologda Region, provision of reliability of the electric power supply system and removal of restrictions on capacity, perspective development of Petrozavodsk and construction of a new residential district in the capital of the republic.

Now the branch "Karelenergo" cannot have forward-looking plans providing improvement of reliability of electric grid objects due to limitation of the investment component in the 2010 tariff. This especially concerns large-scale projects, the implementation of which demands construction of long overhead lines and new feed centers.

"The solution of the problem of necessary financing of development of the electric grid complex of the Republic of Karelia has clear ways and transparent tools: transition to the RAB regulation which will allow the grid company to involve large long-term credits and to solve the problem of dynamical development in the complex," Alexander Kukhmay emphasized.

According to the estimate fixed in the Program of the Republic of Karelia's Electric Power Industry Perspective Development for the Period till 2015, power consumption in the region will grow up to 9,447 million kWh, capacity consumption will go up to 1,427 MW.

"I am sure that we should meet more often to ensure prompt solution of tasks of the grid complex development and, first of all, to work applying a forward-looking approach. It is expedient to have consultations with the management of IDGC of North-West at least every one and a half month or every two months," Andrey Nelidov proposed.

The proposal was included into the minutes of the heads' working meeting. IDGC of North-West's Deputy General Director for Authorities Relations Valery Mamontov took part in the meeting.