OREANDA-NEWS. December 30, 2010. At the Presidium, the prime minister raised the issue of severe weather and subsequent power and transport failures. “Naturally, the situation is difficult, and not everything depends on us. But there’s no sense in moaning – we all need to work at it,” he said.
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Let me first mention several decisions that we have prepared and taken together. Today I signed a government executive order to set aside the necessary funds for relief work following the November 30th fire in the village of Tsibari in Dagestan and a government resolution extending measures to ensure the employment of workers at Avtovaz and its subsidiaries in 2011. In addition, we allocated about 7 billion roubles from the budget of the Ministry of Defence to build permanent housing for service members. Another 1.3 billion roubles will be spent on the construction of social facilities for military personnel and their families.

In this respect, I would like to recall that service members received over 97,000 flats in 2009 and 2010. I request that the Ministry of Defence and all related social agencies address such issues as accessibly as possible and put up no bureaucratic barriers. Many issues arise along the way – that’s why we have a lot to do. These issues should be addressed open-mindedly and without excessive bureaucracy. Significant funds are being set aside, and they should be spent wisely.

Now let’s speak about the difficult situation resulting from abnormal weather patterns, including icing and heavy snowfalls. In this respect, I would like to say the following: Naturally, the situation is difficult, and not everything depends on us. But there is no sense in moaning – we all need to work at it.

On Sunday, I met with the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Energy and the Minister of Emergency Situations. I heard their reports on measures taken to remedy the situation. At that meeting, I said that given the weather forecast the situation was not likely to improve in the next few days. My words have proven true. That is why today, I would like to request our colleagues to inform us of measures taken to address the current situation and plans for the very near future. I’m referring to the fact that entire communities remain disconnected from power lines, roads are blocked, and thousands of people are stranded at airports. By the way, everyone responsible for taking charge of the situation should have been at the site of the events from the get-go instead of starting to celebrate the New Year. But we will discuss that later.

Let’s hear from our colleagues. Mr Gromov (addressing Moscow Region Governor Boris Gromov), what is the current situation in the Moscow Region? Please.

Boris Gromov: Mr Putin, the current situation with the energy supply is that 11 municipal districts are still without electricity (compared to 27 districts before), including 176 towns and villages. However, all large cities and towns of the Moscow Region have electricity.

A total of 11 socially important facilities, including four public healthcare facilities, four educational facilities and three facilities that are open to the public round the clock, are without electricity but have an alternative power source. So all the facilities, including 44 housing and utility facilities, that are without stable electricity have an alternative power source.

A total of 6,500 people and 2,500 vehicles were dispatched to handle the problem, including 512 teams from utilities providers, 510 teams from fuel and energy providers, 243 teams from the State Road Traffic Safety Inspectorate, almost 1,800 people from road services and almost 400 people from the Emergencies Ministry. We plan to finish work on all these facilities at about 6.00 p.m. tomorrow evening.

Vladimir Putin: Look what’s happened. Power lines and trees are iced over, and it is snowing in many parts of the country, which weighs down on the supports for the power lines and on nearby trees that can break and damage the lines.

We already discussed these issues with Mr Shvets. We talked about the need to take new decisions regarding the felling of trees near power lines and to take corresponding decisions, including changes to the law. What has been done since our last conversation, Mr Shvets?

Nikolai Shvets (Director General of the MRSK Holding): Mr Putin, members of Presidium, after speaking with you and reporting back on the problems with amendments to the corresponding regulatory documents, on December 14 we signed the order in the Ministry of Agriculture. The regulation that restricted protected areas and clearings to 25 metres has already been rescinded. We are now allowed to use the regulations established in the rules for electric equipment installation. But this happened quite recently.

At present, the situation in the MRSK Holding and the 69 regions is stable. There were power outages in Gorenergo in the Republic of Chechnya and in Pskov. The situation in Moscow and the Moscow Region remains extremely tough. There are now 424 professional teams, 2,270 personnel and 174 special vehicles involved in repair works. Getting high-voltage transformer substations and feeder centres back up and working is the priority.

Today, on the instruction of the minister of energy, I went to Domodedovo and checked the power lines there that supply electricity to the Vzlyotnaya and Yakovlevo substations. I determined that in view of deteriorating weather conditions 18 trees could potentially fall on a power line supplying electricity to the Vzlyotnaya substation.

Considering that Domodedovo Airport normally receives electricity from four power lines, a decision was made to disconnect this power line. Six teams are now working to remove the trees that pose a threat. In three hours this line will be functioning, and we hope that this will not cause Domodedovo Airport any serious problems.

Today and tomorrow we plan to gather another group of 20 teams – 100 employees who will be deployed from our northwestern branch. The entire MOESK management team and its branches are working round-the-clock. The governor of the Moscow Region said that the power supply to main substations will be restored by approximately 6 p.m. on December 30.

Vladimir Putin: How many people in the region were left without electricity?

Nikolai Shvets: About 24,000.

Vladimir Putin: That’s a large number. And what about it, Mr Shvets? I heard the governor’s report. What measures are being taken to restore the power supply in the localities?

Nikolai Shvets: Mr Putin, first of all, we will repair the main substations – with a capacity of 110kV and 35kV – and then we will start repairing the final distribution substations in the localities. Today there are 3,388 such local substations, although there were as many as 7,500. After restoring the power supply at the main substations, we will need one more day to restore electricity to the affected localities. But we need to bear in mind that there are energy network companies working in the region that do not represent IDGC Holding.

Vladimir Putin: How much time do you think will be needed to restore power in full?

Nikolai Shvets: Mr Putin, we are planning to restore power by New Year’s. If we fail to do so, then we will meet the New Year at the mainline.

Vladimir Putin: So you mean to say that it will be restored by the end of the next day?

Nikolai Shvets: By 6 p.m. on December 31.