The Chelyabinsk Region Government and RAO "UES of Russia", with the participation of Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative to the Urals Federal District, have signed an Agreement on Cooperation in implementing capital investment projects to build and refurbish the electric power facilities in the region's energy system until 2011.

The Agreement was signed by Chelyabinsk Region Governor Pyotr Sumin and Chairman of the Management Board of RAO "UES of Russia" Anatoly Chubais.

Over the past few years, the Chelyabinsk energy system, which embraces the city of Chelyabinsk and the surrounding region, has seen a rapid growth in energy consumption at a rate of 6-7% annually.

The Agreement is designed to improve the reliability of electricity supply to consumers, increase the network throughput capacity, create the conditions for new user connections to power grids and increase the capacity available for users already connected, prevent power shortages amid growing electricity consumption in the regional energy system.

The Agreement provides for the overall development of the generation and grid facilities in the Chelyabinsk Region and the use of state-of-the art technologies. In particular, it includes investment projects to build and modernize 1,125 MW of generating capacity by 2011 and a further 225 MW in 2012, construct different voltage substations with 1,973 MVA of transformer capacity by 2011 and 250 MVA in 2012, about 900 km of bulk transmission lines and substations with 676 MVA of transformer capacity, and about 100 km of lines in the region's distribution networks.

As a measure to further develop the facilities of the Unified National Energy Grid in the Chelyabinsk Energy System, OAO "Federal Grid Company" plans, in particular, to build a high-voltage transmission line of 500 kV in the territories of the Kurgan Region and Chelyabinsk Region between the Kurgan Substation and Kozyrevo Substation; construct a 500 kV line between the Troitskaya TPP and the Privalovskaya Substation to transmit the power generated by power unit 10 at the Troitskaya TPP. In order to enhance reliability of power supplies to the region's consumers and connect the new facilities of OAO "Ashinsky Metallurgical Plant" to the power grid, it is planned to build the AMET Substation of 500/220/110 kV with the 500 kV lines to the Kropachevo Substation and the Ufimskaya Substation; to install a second 500/110 kV autotransformer at the 500 kV Privalovskaya Substation in order to prevent capacity shortage in the Kropachevo-Zlatoustovsky energy node during the periods when the major power equipment will be under repair.