The Ministry of Energy is considering a possibility to provide support to power producers but is not prepared to discuss serious adjustments of their investment programs, stated Minister of Energy Sergey Shmatko yesterday. The representatives of the Ministry of Energy informed the reporter from the Gazeta that the Ministry considers a possibility of providing support; at this stage the form of the support is unclear. At the moment the declared amount of the investment programs of power generating companies is around RUR1.2 billion and presupposes construction of facilities with the capacity of almost 30.4 GW. As a result of additional issues the companies generated in total slightly over RUR 500 billion, says Konstantin Gulyaev of Capital Investment Group. It is rather difficult to fulfill the declared targets of investment programs as the funds generated from the additional issues of shares are not sufficient and obtaining credits is difficult at the moment due to the crisis. In order to attract such a big investment, we need either a fully operational debt market or an opportunity to issue additional shares. In case of non-fulfillment of the investment programs, there is a danger that the power generating companies may be subject to penalties in the amount of 25% of the total program cost. By estimate of Konstantin Gulyaev, the most secure power generating companies are now OGK-3, OGK -4, TGK-5, TGK-6, TGK -10, TGK -14, and the following companies experience the biggest deficit of investment funds: OGK -1, OGK -2, OGK -6, TGK -1, TGK -2, Mosenergo, Volzhskaya TGK, OGK -5, OGK -3. The representatives of RosHydro and FSK (Federal Grid Company) informed the Gazeta reporter that they do not experience any difficulties with financing. However, the industry experts remark that there is a number of projects claiming to extend their terms to 1-3 years; some power generating companies discuss the possibility of additional issue of shares. Sergey Shmatko remarked that the Russian nuclear energy industry is unlikely to be affected by the world market crisis. It is related to the fact that it is less dependent on borrowed funds as a considerable amount of investments are funded through federal sources and own reserves. The amount of Rosatom's investment program until 2015 is ambitious, it reaches RUR 1.5 trillion (almost one third of the consolidated program for the Russian power industry which constitutes about RUR 4.3 trillion until 2012). "Considering that this is a state-owned company and taking into account the current financial crisis, we can assume that we might have problems with financing", - says Konstantin Gulyaev. Thus, Deputy CEO of Rosatom Alexander Lokshin reported yesterday that he expected an adjustment of the projects with Rusal on the construction of Balakovo Atomic Power Station in the Saratov region owing to the financial crisis. In the near future Rosatom plans to conduct a follow-up meeting with Rusal on this issue. |
