Moscow, 2 August 2006. According to the recent updates, the power plants of RAO "UES of Russia" increased electricity generation in January-July 2006 by 5.6% to 402.6 billion kWh from 381.1 billion kWh in the same period last year.

Over the period, the electricity consumption has been rapidly growing nationwide, to 556.2 billion kWh from 531.9 billion kWh, up 4.6% year on year. In 2006, an increase in power consumption is observed for the first time not only during the winter period of abnormally low temperatures, but also during the summer months.

Due to the lower water inflow levels at reservoirs of several large HPPs, electricity generation was supplied mostly by the thermal power plants of RAO "UES of Russia", which, in first seven months of 2006, generated 330.2 billion kWh of electricity, up 8.1% yoy. In January to July 2006, the hydropower plants of RAO "UES of Russia" generated 72.4 billion kWh, down 4.4% on the same period the year before.

According to the management data, in July 2006, the RAO UES power plants generated 48.6 billion kWh of electricity, an increase of 6.6% over the same period of 2005. The surge in electricity generation was due not only to the overall growth of the national economy, but also to an increased electricity consumption in Russia, which, in June 2006, grew to 64.8 billion kWh from 68 billion kWh from, up 4.9% yoy. This is primarily explained by an increased residential electricity consumption caused by the heat wave in most areas of Russia in June-July 2006.

In July, the hydropower plants of RAO "UES of Russia" generated 12.2 billion kWh, while the Company's thermal power plants produced 36.4 billion kWh.