OREANDA-NEWS. June 21, 2010. The EBRD and Russia’s Federal Grid Company, the country’s high-voltage transmission operator, laid the groundwork for a strategic partnership to promote energy efficiency in the Russian power sector, reported the press-centre of EBRD.     

EBRD President Thomas Mirow and Federal Grid Chief Executive Oleg Budargin signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum covering key areas of cooperation -- ranging from new technologies to capital market support – capable of fostering Russia’s transition towards a low-carbon economy.

The Bank, which has directly invested over 1 billion Euros in the Russian power sector in the last nine years and mobilised additional investments in it of 2 billion Euros during that same period, is, as part of its strategy, ready to consider new investments which will contribute towards making the network more energy efficient.

Cooperation with such a key infrastructure player in the Russian economy as the Federal Grid gives the EBRD an unparalleled opportunity to assist the company in targeting energy efficiency, reducing power losses and increasing the high-voltage system’s capacity as well as its stability and reliability, Mr. Mirow said at the signing ceremony.

In the MoU the two sides intend to join forces in order to introduce modern network management systems, including “Smart Grid” technologies, as well as improve environmental protection and raise safety standards.

In the context of the EBRD’s wider commitment to help develop local capital markets, a goal that the recent crisis has made more urgent in the EBRD region, the Bank also stated its willingness to consider cooperating with the Federal Grid in new forms of financing to support the company’s investment programme.

In 2005, the EBRD advanced an eight-year unsecured loan of five billion roubles to Russia’s Federal Grid to fund the modernisation of its infrastructure aimed at significantly increasing electricity flows from Siberia and the Urals in the East, towards Central Russia and the Caucasus.