Of this amount, thermal power plants generated 50.5 billion kilowatt/hours, or about the same as in February 2003. The hydropower stations generated 8.7 billion kilowatt/hours, or 13 percent more than last February.
"The increment is due mostly to the increased water content of rivers in the European part of Russia and the putting into service in November 2003 of the second power unit of the Bureya hydroelectric power plant (the Bureya river is the Amur's left tributary, flowing in the Khabarovsk territory and Amur regions) of 185 megawatt capacity," reads the Russian UES communique.
Electricity consumption in Russia last February was 900 million kilowatt/hours above forecasted level and constituted 82.8 billion kilowatt/hours, or 3 percent more than during the same period last year.
Since the average monthly air temperature countrywide last February was 2.2 degrees Centigrade above the many-years average, the Russian UES has produced 62 million gigacalories of thermal energy, or 1.2 million gigacalories below last year's indicator.
