Industry and Energy Ministry hopes that by Feb 1 Government will approve general scheme for development of energy sector till 2020

24.01.2008 // Interfax

The Industry and Energy Ministry hopes that by Feb 1 the Government will approve general scheme for development of energy sector till 2020

The Industry and Energy Ministry hopes that by Feb 1 2008 the Government will approve the general scheme for the development of the energy sector till 2020, the head of the relevant department of the ministry Vyacheslav Kravchenko said during a conference in Moscow.

“We hope that the scheme will be adopted by Feb 1,” Kravchenko said.

The revised general scheme was submitted to the Government in Dec 2007. After approval, the scheme is supposed to be reconsidered once in three years.

The scheme is based on the forecast that by 2020 the electricity demand in Russia will grow by 4% a year, however, in the regions the growth may be even higher. The scheme includes all the plans for the construction of new nuclear power plants, water power plants with a capacity of more than 200 MW, thermal power plants with a capacity of more than 500 MW as well as inter-regional power transmission lines and main and auxiliary electricity networks.

The scheme says that by 2020 the output of nuclear power plants should be redoubled; water power plants (including pumped storage plant) should increase their production by 60%, coal power plants — by two times, gas power plants — by 50%.

The scheme envisages optimization of gas consumption due to use of innovative gas burning and energy saving technologies. By 2010 the consumption of gas in the sector should make up 186bln c m, by 2020 – 210bln c m and even 230bln c m, at best.