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Vladimir Putin: Mr Dod, let’s look at the company’s investment activities and the commissioning of new capacity at various sites, given that these are all big projects, and with an emphasis on the Far East and Eastern Siberia what’s more.

Yevgeny Dod: Mr President, thank you for this chance to meet.

As far as increasing capacity goes, in 2012, we brought online 4,500 megawatts of new capacity. This is the best result since the Soviet period. Even during the 1980s, which were the golden decade for hydroelectricity, we did not build such a lot of new capacity.

Just a week ago, we put the sixth hydropower unit into operation at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station. We will put the seventh unit into operation this year, and next year will fully complete the reconstruction work at this, our main power station.

We have six hydropower units in operation at the Boguchanskaya power station, and our colleagues have drawn up the model for power distribution. We will complete all nine hydropower units there this year, and this huge station, with 3,000 MW capacity, will supply power to people living in Western and Eastern Siberia.

We have two hydropower units in Magadan at the Kolyma and Ust-Srednekansk power stations currently in trial operation. We have already completed several projects in the Far East, and are carrying out a series of measures at our facilities in the Caucasus as part of the modernisation programme there.

Following your instruction, an intergovernmental agreement was signed last year with the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. We now have the project requirements ready and in August will complete the approval process with our colleagues in Kyrgyzstan. This is a project for four power stations with capacity of 234 MW. We will have the first hydropower unit ready to go into operation in 2016, and will have completed the full cascade by 2019.

There are several promising sites for developing hydropower that we could investigate if we get your instruction. This would create around 8,000 new jobs in Kyrgyzstan, and would produce around 1.5–2-billion kilowatt-hours. These are big and promising projects. 

In accordance with your executive order, we have also begun carrying out projects in the Far East, for which 50 billion roubles have been allocated. These projects are one of the fundamental components of the energy development programme for the entire Far East, for the four key regions.

Vladimir Putin: You have not actually used the allocated funds yet.

Yevgeny Dod: The oversight system in place there is so stringent and multi-layered that to date, we are still investing only in the preparation phase. We have invested 5 billion from the company’s budget, so that there can be no possible doubts at all about how clean our operations are and how the 50 billion roubles are being managed.

The projects concerned are the Yakutsk, Sakhalin, Khabarovsk (Sovietskaya Gavan) and Blagoveshchensk thermal power stations. As far as Blagoveshchensk and Amur Region are concerned, this is where we will be bringing the biggest amount of capacity into operation. You were present for the ground-breaking ceremony for the Nizhne-Bureisksya power station. This 320-MW capacity station will be completed by 2016 and its main customer will be the Vostochny Space Launch Centre. The thermal power station will be completed at the end of 2015, and the nearby hydroelectricity station will be ready at the end of 2016.

We are also carrying out a lot of social programmes. We allocate more than 1.5 billion roubles a year to these programmes. One of our priorities is in Khakassia of course, the hydropower station builders’ settlement, where we have allocated 1.4 billion roubles for the settlement’s development, and 177 million for people’s direct needs. I have photographs with me and can show you everything.

We have a big environmental programme. I think it’s an interesting programme. It’s unlike anything we had previously. We are also encouraging our employees to adopt children. There are now around 160 orphaned children around the country living in families of our employees. They employees participating in this programme receive a bonus payment.

We have other programmes too, a sports programme, mostly focused on children’s sport, a healthcare programme, and a programme for building kindergartens around the country. We allocate 1.5–1.6 billion roubles a year for these programmes.

Vladimir Putin: We will need to organise a separate meeting to discuss the full energy development programme in the Far East and Eastern Siberia. You know better than anyone that these two regions face energy shortages, and we need to work out which means and resources we can use to resolve these problems, and within what timeframe. I think we will organise a meeting on this matter in a month’s time.

As for the 50 billion roubles, it is good that you are looking after them, but we allocated these considerable funds and sent them to you so that you can help to resolve the problems I just mentioned. You must start working in this direction and make sure that the money is used rationally and effectively, so as to develop energy production, hydropower in this case. This money was specifically allocated for the Far East. I hope that you will work hard.

Let’s discuss this later as part of the overall agenda.

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