RUSSIA: Unified Energy Ready as Temperature in Moscow

by Lucian Kim and Bradley Cook

OAO Unified Energy System, Russia's national utility, said it is prepared for a cold front expected to hit Moscow over the next two days.

``We base our plans on the growth in electricity consumption, not on the weather report,'' Tatyana Milyaeva, a Unified Energy spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview today. Its reserves can meet demand, she said.

The Russian Hydrometeorological Center expects the temperature to drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) tomorrow and to minus 23 degrees on Feb. 8, from a low of minus 3 degrees today.

The high is forecast to fall to minus 15 degrees in both of the next two days, from the minus 2 degrees expected today, the center said on its Web site.

Moscow weather officials have said this winter is the warmest since records began in 1879, prompting bears to come out of hibernation before spring. That's in stark contrast to last year's winter, when temperatures fell below minus 30 degrees Celsius to the coldest in half a century, forcing Unified Energy to ration power supplies.

``There's no talk about power cuts related to the cold,'' said Milyaeva. ``For us, it's more important how long it will stay cold than what temperature it will be tomorrow.''

Earlier today, Unified Energy said it produced 6.1 percent less power in January than it did in the same month last year. Electricity consumption is still higher than average as Russia enters its ninth straight year of economic growth.