Moscow. 6 December 2006. According to recent updates, in the first eleven months of 2006, the power plants of RAO "UES of Russia" increased electricity generation year-on-year by 5% to 596.6 billion kWh from 626.5 billion kWh.

In January-November 2006, the country's electricity consumption grew 4.7% to 830 billion kWh from 868.6 billion kWh, and in October by 4.3% to 87.8 billion kWh from 84.2 billion kWh, which is twice the growth rate projected for the entire 2006 as approved by the regulator.

The dramatic increase in power use this year was observed not only in winter, during the period of extremely low temperatures, but also during the summer months. Such an increase was due to both economic growth and increased electricity use by the residential sector, which grows when the outdoor temperatures are low.

In November 2006, the hydroelectric power plants of RAO "UES of Russia" increased electricity generation 12.1% year-on-year to 10.2 billion kWh from 9.1 kWh. This was due to the favourable hydrological situation in the reservoirs the Angara-Yenisey HPP cascade during the past two months.

However, over the eleven months of 2006, the hydropower generation declined by 0.8% to 114.5 billion kWh. This is explained by the lower water inflow levels in the reservoirs of several large HPPs located in the European part of Russia, which were observed over the past nine months.

In the eleven months of 2006, RAO UES thermal power plants increased their generation by 6.4% yoy to 512 billion kWh. Accordingly, the thermal power plants had to increase the volume of fuel consumed to produce electricity and heat.