Moscow, 2 September 2004. In August 2004, the power plants of RAO "UES of Russia" generated 45.4 billion kWh of electricity, up 4.4% on the same period of last year. The electricity consumption throughout Russia totalled 64.8 billion kWh, which represents an increase of 3.7% in year-on-year terms.

The growth of electricity consumption was primarily ensured by the increased generation of the Holding Company's hydroelectric power plants, which grew to 11.6 billion kWh in August 2004, up 9.4% on last August. Last month, the thermal power plants of RAO "UES of Russia" increased electricity generation by 2.7% to 33.8 billion kWh.

According to the current updates, in January to August 2004 the power plants of RAO "UES of Russia" increased their electricity generation to 422.2 billion kWh from 411.6 billion kWh, up 2.6% on the same period of 2003.

Throughout Russia, electricity consumption over the eight months of 2004 totalled 588.3 billion kWh, an increase of 2.3% in year-on-year terms.

In January to August 2004, there was a considerable year-on-year increase in the generation of the hydroelectric power plants of RAO "UES of Russia", 17.7%. During the period, the Holding Company's HPPs produced 89.6 billion kWh of electricity. In the first eight months of 2004, the thermal power plants of RAO "UES of Russia" generated 332.6 billion kWh of electricity, which is nearly the same as in the corresponding period of 2003. Such changes in electricity generation are due to the fact that RAO "UES of Russia" has changed the production targets for some thermal power plants and increased the load for hydroelectric power plants located in the Volga-Kama and Angara-Yenisey river basins.