Electricity chief warns for blackouts

The Russian capital could face rolling blackouts during periods of extreme cold this winter, the head of the electricity monopoly has said, dramatizing the need for fresh investment in the country’s crumbling electrical grid.

Anatoly Chubais, the head of Unified Energy System, who has been working on the privatization of the country’s electrical system for five years, warned a business gathering here on Tuesday of a “dramatic” and “catastrophic” collapse of the system if electric rates are not raised to attract investment.

..”If the country thinks that we should continue to live under the ‘inflation-minus’ scenario, fine, we are capable of this,” Chubais said, referring to the government policy of keeping rate increases below the rate of inflation. “We showed it for two years and will for another year. But then we’ll arrive at a complete catastrophe.”

International Herald Tribune