Moscow, 16 December 2006. Today, phase 3 was put into operation at the Zelenchukskaya HPP, the largest generation plant in the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia.

The official ceremony was attended by Dmitry Kozak, Presidential Plenipotentiary in the Southern Federal District; Mustafa Badtyev, President of the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia; Anatoly Chubais, Management Board Chairman of RAO "UES of Russia"; and Vyacheslav Sinyugin, Management Board Chairman of OAO "HydroWGC".

The construction of the Zelenchukskaya HPP was started back in the mid-1970s, but due to lack of finance, the project was suspended. In the late nineties, on the suggestion of RAO "UES of Russia", the project was included in the Company's Investment Programme and subsequently resumed.

The plant's first 80 MW hydraulic unit was commissioned in August 1999. Three years later, in 2002, the second 80 MW hydraulic unit was put into operation. Since then, the pant has annually generated up to 190 million kWh, nearly one fifth of the electricity consumed in Karachay-Cherkessia.

As a result of completion of Phase 3, the output of the Zelenchukskaya HPP has increased more than 2.6-fold to 500 million kWh. This will make it possible to start new businesses and actively develop the existing federal resorts, such as Dombay, Arkhyz, and Teberda.

The increase in the plant's output was reached without installing any additional equipment by delivering larger amounts of water to the existing hydraulic units. To achieve that, a unique 30 km system of tunnels and channels was created in the mountains to supply more water from the mountain rivers to the hydraulic units of the Zelenchukskaya HPP.

The investments in phase 3 of the plant made about RUB1.5 billion. The Zelenchukskaya HPP is the first plant of the chain of hydroelectric power plants to be built in Karachay-Cherkessia. According to the draft Investment Programme of OAO "HydroWGC", the next plant of the cascade, the 106 MW Verkhne-Krasnogorskaya HPP, will be started in 2007.