Unjustified electricity price growth must be avoided following HPP disaster
ULAN-UDE. Aug 24 (Interfax) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said unjustified price growth for electricity must not be permitted following the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant.
"I'm hoping that all market participants will be guided by common sense rather than instant profit. We cannot allow unjustified price growth for electricity, and I've given the government the relevant instructions," Medvedev said at a meeting on the Siberian Federal District's socioeconomic development.
Electricity prices are a cause for concern not just to industry but to households also, he said.
"Of course people are asking questions in view of what has happened, I mean the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP tragedy, and how this will affect them financially," Medvedev said.
"We need to adopt very balanced decisions both in tariff policy and in anti-monopoly regulation in general," he said.
Medvedev said at a meeting with workers from the Ulan-Ude Aircraft Factory that electricity prices for industrial plants in Siberia could alter in the wake of the HPP accident.
But he said households should not be affected. "We certainly won't allow that," he said.
"We might have to work on tariffs to some extent, but not for households," Medvedev said.
"We've had to take a number of decisions related to the cross-flow of electricity in order to support the biggest industrial plants. But my orders are that ordinary people must not suffer as the result of this accident," he said.