In addressing the State Duma (the Russian parliament's lower chamber) Wednesday, he pointed out that formerly this crisis was expected in 2005.
"Even the most pessimistic estimates show now that this may only happen in 2010-2011," the minister said.
In his opinion, in order to avoid a deficit of power-generating capacities in Russia, it is necessary to attract investments, including private capital, into the construction of new power-generating facilities.
Viktor Khristenko recalled that the 2005 investment program of the Unified Energy Systems (RAO UES) of Russia, which is the monopolist on the Russian energy market, envisages investments in the amount of 150 billion rubles into this sphere.
In 2006, it is planned to commission the 4th power unit of the Bureya hydropower station (in the south of Eastern Siberia), the 1st unit of the Kaliningrad thermal power plant (in the Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea coast), and other hydropower facilities.
At present, mechanisms for covering the investors' risks in building power-generating capacities for the transition period are being worked out in order to attract private investments into this sphere, the minister pointed out.
Viktor Khristenko added that, in order to cover power deficit in Russia, CIS countries' power-generating capacities, primarily those of Kazakhstan, could be used.
