Igor Orlov, Chairman of Board of Energoresource Consortium

— We should make our regions energy-sufficient

“The problem of energy shortfall should be solved individually for each region. “Taking average temperature for the whole hospital” is hardly a solution in this context. I think the President was absolutely right when he called Siberia a priority region for nuclear projects. This big region is already facing an energy crisis. Not only Siberia but also the Far East, Magadan and Kamchatka live mostly on TPPs,” says the chairman of the board of Energoresource Consortium Igor Orlov.

To remind, during a press-conference on Feb 1 Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he had instructed the Government to prepare a plan of power generating capacities deployment. “You may know that we have made relevant decisions on a large-scale financing. And certainly Siberia is one of the priorities for such projects. For example, Tomsk (Siberia) has relevant companies, personnel and demand for raising its energy capacities. We perfectly realize that the lack of power generating capacities is becoming a big obstacle to the development of the country’s economy. We are already facing this problem in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Western Siberia. Now that we have big plans for developing Eastern Siberia, we will hardly do without nuclear power engineering. And it is for the Government, relevant department and regional authorities to decide where and when relevant facilities will be built,” Putin said.
 
“The key problem of Siberia is transport. For example, Magadan and other regions of Siberia get coal by sea. I think you imagine how much they pay. Heavy dependence on imported fuel may certainly put many Russian regions in an economic deadlock; and not only in the east – for example, Arkhangesk gets fuel from 1,500 km away. This is all but profitable under present oil and gas costs. Power engineering must be convenient, and our task is to make our regions energy-sufficient. In Siberia we can solve this problem by building mid-capacity NPPs,” says Orlov.