OREANDA-NEWS. April 07, 2008. "The Master Plan for location of the objects of the electric power industry by 2020 is very important for stimulating investment processes in Russia and for creating economic and technological foundations to develop domestic electric power market" - said Deputy Head of FAS Russia Anatoly Golomolzin at the Round Table of the 6th All-Russian Energy Forum "Russian Fuel-and-Energy Complex in XXI century", that took place in Moscow, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Anatoly Golomolzin stated that the Plan is of considerable practical interest for the Antimonopoly Service: analyzing the impact of large transactions on competition environment, FAS Russia bases its evaluations, in particular, on the medium- and long-term forecasts for the development of the electric power industry.

"In terms of developing the Master Plan, it is important for the antimonopoly authority that the Plan parameters are academically proven and widely discussed, that they take account of the interests of all organizations and consumers and ensure selection of the most effective, competition-promoting projects", - said Deputy Head of FAS Russia.

According to Deputy Head of FAS Russia, to ensure general sustainable development of the electric power market "it is necessary to build stable market institutions and continue working on the legislation which promotes competition environment".

Mr Golomolzin reminded of the already adopted innovations - the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" and amendments to the Code of Administrative Violations, which introduced turnover penalties 1% - 15% of the proceeds of the companies-violators. Both the Law and the amendments are important for the electric power industry because they allow preventing and eliminating abuses on this market.

According to Anatoly Golomolzin, FAS Russia registers around 700 antimonopoly violations in the electric power industry every year, which constitutes half of all the violations of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition", related to abuse of the dominant position on the market. It is possible to assume, however, that the figure will go down with the introduction of turnover penalties.

Specific features of the antimonopoly control on this market are also established by the Federal Law "On the Electric Power Industry". In particular, the Law decreases the dominance threshold for the electric power objects to 20% in comparison with 35% on other goods markets.

Among the documents aimed at promoting competition on this market, Deputy Head of FAS Russia named the Regulations on Non-Discriminatory Access in the Electric Power Industry and the Checking Procedures for Price Manipulation in the Electric Power Industry.

Anatoly Golomolzin gave a positive assessment of the work of FAS Russia, the market administrator ("ATS" NP) and the system operator on monitoring the situation on the electric power market.