Zeiskaya HPP Branch operated by RusHydro
With 35.2 GW installed electricity generation capacity and 16,200 GCal/h heat capacity, RusHydro is one of Russia’s largest power generating companies. Including the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, the largest in Russia, the Company has over 70 renewable energy source facilities: 9 power stations in the Volga-Kama Cascade with a total installed capacity of more than 10,167 MW, the Zeiskaya HPP (1,330 MW) – the first large-scale hydro-power plant in the Russian Far East, the Bureiskaya HPP (2,010 MW), the Novosibirsk HPP (455 MW) and tens of HPPs in the North Caucasus. The Company’s assets also feature geothermal power plants in Kamchatka and the highly manoeuvrable Zagorskaya Pumped Storage Hydropower Plant in the Moscow Region. The Russian Federation owns some 60.5% of RusHydro’s shares.

The total installed capacity of the hydropower plants will be 191 MW with average annual electricity generation of 1,055 GWh. The project cost is estimated at US $410-425 mn (as of 2009). Construction of each plant will take 2.5-3 years on average (synchronous construction of all stations can take 4-5 years). Electricity generated by hydropower plants can be supplied to mining companies, households or exported to neighbouring counties.

RusHydro and JSC Electric power stations will set up a 50/50 joint venture (JV) to develop the project. Russian Federation will provide 50% of necessary funds to RusHydro as a contribution to JV to finance the construction and will guarantee that JV obtains a loan facility to cover the other 50% of construction cost. The Kyrgyz party will contribute land rights and other assets, including intangible. The full project’s financing scheme and terms of RusHydro’s involvement in the project will be determined after feasibility study is complete.

The agreements also stipulate that for duration of the project’s payback period:

• the Kyrgyz party will transfer a 25% stake in the project under RusHydro’s trust management;
• the Russian party will have strategic and operating management of the project, its representatives in JV’s Board of Directors and management board will have a majority;
• the Kyrgyz party will exempt the JV from property tax and land-use tax;
• Russia and Kyrgyzstan will exempt construction equipment, plant’s equipment and vehicles from customs payments.

The project also provides for investment protection of the Russian party in accordance with the agreement on investment stimulation measures and mutual investment protection in member states of Eurasian Economic Community (as of December 12, 2008). Should the agreement be made invalid, RusHydro’s stakes in JV are to be transferred to the Kyrgyz party only after full restitution.

Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation and Ministry of Energy and Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic will be the coordinators of the project.

“Electric Power Plants” is the largest producer of the electric and thermal energy in Kyrgyzstan. The main target of the company is realization and development of hydro energy potential of the Republic. At present the company produces 13-14 billion kWh of electric energy and 2,292,400 GCal of thermal energy annually which is 99% of all energy production in the country.