OREANDA-NEWS. On August 19, 2008 The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) has formed the Department for Control of Electric Power Markets. Vitaly Korolev, the former Deputy Head of the Department for Control of the Fuel and Energy Complex, is appointed as the Head of the new Department. In his previous capacity, Mr Korolev was, in particular, addressing the issues of the electric power sector, the press-centre of FAS Russia reported.

Electric power markets are experiencing large-scale structural reforms, price deregulation and roll-out of competitive relations. The primary objective facing the Department is to create an efficient monitoring and control system on the electric power market in order to prevent price manipulation throughout a state-by-stage transition to the liberalized market of electric power.

Furthermore, the Department will pay special attention to compliance with the regulations on non-discriminatory access to the subjects of natural monopolies and other infrastructure services; for instance, control over engineering connection to power networks is of special importance.

Among other goals of the Department, Vitaly Korolev also underlines controlling major transactions on the electric power markets and developing appropriate measures to prevent monopolization of the relevant market segments. According to the Head of the new Department, another important priority is working out the approaches to systematization of the legal relations in the retail markets. "FAS Russia's attention will be focused on controlling the activities of the providers of last resort as well as stimulating competition among the trade companies" - Vitaly Korolev stated.