07 June 2004 10:47
GOVT. TO MERGE 4 HYDROPOWER GENCOS
MOSCOW. June 7 (Interfax) - The government plans to merge four generating companies (gencos) created on the basis of
hydropower plants into one company as part of electricity industry reforms, Deputy Economic Development and Trade
Minister Andrei Sharonov told Interfax.
The proposal was approved at a June 2 meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, he said.
The Industry Ministry was instructed to put together and seek Economic Development Ministry approval for a draft
merger plan.
Sharonov said this merger plan is necessary for several reasons.
"The first reason is that, inasmuch as these companies are not market players, they only make price-receiving
bids [on the wholesale electricity market], which does not distort competition at all," he said. "Second is
that a decision has been made that will not reduce, but most probably will increase the state's stake in
hydro-generation, there is sense in concentrating it in company hands, where the state share will grow."
Merging gencos is also necessary for simplifying financing for completing incompletely-built hydropower plants, he
said.
"There is large revenue generated by a hydro-genco because the cost of electricity is low, and dam amortization
has already long ago been paid," Sharonov said. "This revenue can go to building new power stations, the
Bureisk and Boguchansk hydropower stations."
"The decision to create a single hydro-company, that is, the amendment to the resolution, could be made even
before the UES board of directors meets" on June 25, he added.
The governmental resolution endorsing the configuration of future gencos was adopted in 2003. It particularly
stipulates that the Volgo- Kamsk cascade and Caucasus hydropower stations are supposed to be included in the sixth and
seventh gencos, respectively, Siberian and Far Eastern stations in the eighth, and the ninth is planned for creation
around one power plant - the Zagorsk hydrostorage station (currently part of Mosenergo).
It has been reported that the conception for electric power reforms presumes the government not reducing its stake in
hydro-generation and, consequently, in the gencos created therefrom.
[Interfax] |
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