OREANDA-NEWS. On 31 December 2008 was announced, that on the eve of the Day the Power Man, a traditional press-conference of General Director, JSC Irkutskenergo, Andrei Konovalov took place. At the conference he summed up the preliminary results of the company's work in 2008 and defined prospects of future development.

As a whole in 2008 JSC Irkutskenergo has positive dynamics of the main indicators. For twelve months of 2008 the company's power stations will develop 59.202bn kWh(as expected), that is by 1.3 % more than in 2007. The expected output at hydroelectric power stations will equal 44.132bn kWh, and the output at thermal stations, 15.069bn kWh. Heat production will grow by 3.2 % in comparison with the last year and will reach 25.8m Gcal. The company's expected gain will make RUR 29.1bn, that is by 5.25 % more than the last year. The growth of gain of JSC Irkutskenergo is connected with increase in the amount of production and the price situation at the wholesale market of electric power and capacity.

In 2008 the company's restructuring continued according to the requirements of federal law 'On the electric power industry'. JSC Irkutsk Electric Networks spun off from JSC Irkutskenergo; JSC Irkutskenergo grid assets were transferred to the balance of the former. According to the corporate legislation, the shareholders who did not take part in the voting or voted against spinning off of the new company presented for repurchase 161.79m shares for a total sum of RUR 3.1bn; the repurchase price equalled RUR 19.06 per share. The repurchase of shares is planned to finish till 31 January, 2009

In 2008 JSC Irkutskenergo completed a number of important investment projects directed at electricity and heat supply of consumers and increase in the efficiency of the company's work. The total amount of the investment program of JSC Irkutskenergo in 2008 equalled RUR 5.059bn. The completed key projects are:

• end of construction of a new 9 km heating main extending from New Irkutsk heat power generation plant (HPGP) with a bridge pass across the Angara river. The launch of the heating main allowed to add around 300 MW of capacities due to the shutdown of electric boiler-houses and raise overall performance of New Irkutsk heat power generation plant due to transition to a combined cycle of thermal and electric energy production.

• end of construction of Klyuchi substation in Shelekhovo, that is the second in capacity (500/220 kV) substation in the Irkutsk Region. The launch of the substation allows to supply with electric power new industrial consumers, including the fifth potline of Irkutsk Aluminum Factory, RUSAL Joint Company; JSC Kremny and East Siberian Railroad, and also increase reliability of electricity supply of the region as a whole.

• end of construction of the automated thermal supply system of New Irkutsk HPGP (allows to automatically stack, mix in necessary proportions and deliver coal through the conveyor from the warehouse to a HPGP). The new system is one of the first in Siberia, and it will help the company to lower costs due to release of heavy bulldozer machinery.

• replacement of the third impeller at Bratskaya hydroelectric power plant (HPP). Thanks to impeller replacement, the installed capacity of the station increased by 30 MW. Predictably, within the next few days the fourth new impeller will be delivered to Bratsk. The new impellers have a higher efficiency output and increase essentially the output of the HPS at the same consumption of water.

• continuation of construction of access railroad tracks from Sukhovskaya station to 10 kV HPGP with the extent of 5.4 km. After the end of the construction the company will be able to transport coal to the HPGP by its own vehicles and railroad tracks, and it will lower the costs essentially.

In 2009 JSC Irkutskenergo plans to continue performance of key investment projects. The volume of the investment programme for 2009 will equal RUR 3.25bn, and its main directions will remain the same: increase of reliability of work of the company's power facilities, maintenance of a reliable and uninterrupted energy and heat supply of consumers and continuation of performance of the programme of decrease in costs and production optimisation.

The long-term development of the power industry of the Irkutsk Region of JSC Irkutskenergo is connected with the investments under 'The general scheme of electric energy facilities placement'. Due to changes in the forecast terms of increase of electric energy demand in the region caused by the difficult economic situation in Russia as a whole, the company sent to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation a proposals to correct 'The general scheme of electric energy facilities placement' for the period till 2020 concerning the Irkutsk Region. At the present moment, the construction of new generating capacities in the following configuration is being considered:

• Steam-gas thermal electric station in Ust-Kut District. The construction of 1,200 MW SG TES according to the condensation cycle in the Ust-Kut District will allow to manage efficiently associated gas of the north oil and gas deposits.

• It is planned to expand Novo-Ziminskaya HPGP in two stages, by construction of two 160 MW blocks that use both coal and gas as fuel. It will allow to react quicker on the growth of consumption and change in the current situation on the gas and coal markets.

• Gas turbine HPGPs in Irkutsk (three 100 MW HPGPs instead of one). The given variant of development of generating capacities in Irkutsk has the following advantages: a more flexible plan of construction and commissioning that will allow to raise the demand for capacity and financing, and, thus, the efficiency of projects; high efficiency output (up to 90 % due to thermal loading); possibility of use in the city on the available platforms provided with grid and engineering infrastructure and situated in the areas of thermal loading; possibility of creation of electric power generation sources in the centres of its consumption and communication, which would make pointless construction of substations and power transmission lines to them, that is the always extremely difficult at a city construction.

• construction of a thermal electric station near Taishet. Considering the delay of terms of launch of Taishet aluminum factory and increase in capacity of a gas station near Ust Kut, it is planned to construct one 330 MW block until 2020.

The total amount of the investments necessary for performance of plans on the Irkutsk power supply system capacity increase is now under assessment. Financing is supposed to be carried out both at the expense of own and extra company's resources and at the expense of an additional issue of shares of JSC Irkutskenergo and their placement. Additional issue of shares for the purpose of attraction of investments into construction of new capacities was approved by the Company's Board of Directors. "We hope that as a result of the safe additional issue the shareholders of JSC Irkutskenergo will keep the balance of interests that all these years helped the company to be one of the most efficient companies in the industry", said General Director of JSC Irkutskenergo Andrei Konovalov. The additional issue parameters will be defined after corresponding decisions of the Company's management bodies.