FGC plans to invest around 200 bln rubles annually until 2016
VOLOKOLAMSK. May 25 (Interfax) - OJSC Federal Grid Co FGC) is readying its investment program for the period until 2016, in the framework of which it plans to invest 200 billion rubles annually for the development of its facilities, the company's head, Oleg Budargin, told journalists on Wednesday.
"The planned amount for the investment program until 2016 is 200 billion rubles annually," eh added. The company will distribute these funds equally, at 50/50, for new construction projects and the modernization of current facilities.
Budargin said that FGC has already addressed an adjusted investment program to the Russian government for this year, which boosted total investment by 20 billion rubles to around 210 billion rubles. "We hope that the investment program gets approved," he said.
The development of the program for the period until 2016 is directly tied to plans for FGC's possible transfer from a five-year to seven-year period in RAB-tariff regulation. Russia's Federal Tariff Service (FTS) is now working out a normative base for raising the period of RAB regulation for grid companies and hopes to finish this process in the coming weeks. By extending the RAB period, the increase in tariffs can be smoothed out further during the regulated period.
The alternative to the seven-year RAB for FGC would be the introduction of a movable period of regulation whereby with each passing year an additional year would be added to the regulated period (or after a two year period, the addition of two more years). A legislative package for this type of RAB system should be prepared by the end of this year.
Budargin said that documents are now being prepared to move to a seven-year regulation system. Approval of this project will start in June, along with such institutions as the FTS.
Now a five-year RAB system is in place for FGC along with a, therefore, a five-year (2010-2014) investment program, which found approval in December 2010.The total program comes to 952.4 billion rubles, including 189.6 billion rubles for 2011, 194.6 billion rubles for 2012, 197.8 billion rubles for 2013 and 199.9 billion rubles for 2014.
FGC plans to finance its investment program primarily with its own funds and borrowing, as well as, to a lesser extend, funds from the Russian federal budget and revenues from payments for technical link-up services. Over a five-year period, FGC plans to build 73 substations with between 200 and 500 kilowatts in capacity and 89.18 MBD in combined transformer capacity, as well as 123 electrical transmission lines with between 220 and 750 kilowatts of capacity over a distance of 21,000 kilometers.
FGC is a state-controlling company that owns and manages grid facilities included in Russia's Unified National Electricity Grid.