On Feb. 17, RAO UES (Unified Energy System of Russia) Management Board Chairman Anatoly Chubais and Krasnodar Region Governor Alexander Tkachev signed in Sochi an Agreement on Cooperation in implementing top priority projects to build and modernize electric power facilities in the area until 2011.

Over the past years, the development of the Krasnodar Kray infrastructure and health resort business on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts, construction of oil, gas and chemical facilities, transport networks, upgrade of the seaports have been accompanied by a surge in electricity use.

For instance, the electric power consumption in the Krasnodar Kray grew in 2006 by 6.3% compared to the year before. The winter 2006 peak load exceeded the region's all-time peak load by 8%. The maximum load is observed in the transmission lines and transformer substations in the Sochinsky and Novorossiysky energy areas, on the Taman Peninsula, in Krasnodar and Maykop.

The agreement to be signed seeks to improve the reliability of electricity supply to customers, increase the network throughput capacity, create the conditions for new user connections to the power grids and increase the capacity available to the users already connected, and prevent power shortages amid surging electricity demand in the region.

The agreement envisages a well-balanced development of the region's generation capacity, grid facilities, and dispatch infrastructure using advanced technologies.

The agreement also focuses on implementing the Federal Programme "Development of Sochi as a mountain climate resort until 2014" approved by the Russian Government on June 8, 2006.