OREANDA-NEWS. Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of CEZ Martin Roman, Chairman of the Management Board of RAO "UES of Russia" Anatoly Chubais, and Director General of TGC-4 Gennady Kochetkov signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the cooperation in reforming the Russian electricity sector.

The MoU states that CEZ has an interest in reforming Russia's electricity sector and is prepared to assist, as a strategic partner to TGC-4, in building new generation units at the site of the Shchekinskaya TPP and modernizing the plant's existing power units.

CEZ is primarily interested in the construction of a new 400-420 MW combined-cycle unit at the plant. OAO "TGC-4" and CEZ will establish a joint venture to implement the construction project.

This uniqueness of the project lies in that it is the first joint venture established by a foreign investor and a generation company of RAO UES Group. In the future, if deemed appropriate, the joint venture will implement one more project at the Shchekinskaya TPP and will construct two coal coal-fired power units of 200-250 MW each.

In the near future, CEZ engineers will visit the plant site to review its technical and economic performance. The results of the review will serve as a basis for the Memorandum on the general terms of establishment of the joint venture which TGC-4 and CEZ plan to draft and negotiate by end-May 2007.

During the MoU signing ceremony, the CEZ executives expressed their interest in the additional share offerings being prepared by the RAO UES generation companies and the possible sale of the shares in generation companies held by RAO "UES of Russia".

In order to ensure a closer coordination of activities under the MoU, the companies will set up a Joint Working Group comprising experts of RAO "UES of Russia" and CEZ.