OREANDA-NEWS. On 14 July 2008 was announced, that IES-Holding top managers led by the company's President Mikhail Slobodin paid a one-day working visit to the Kirov Region and had a meeting with the Region Governor Nikolay Shaklein. The top managers also visited Kirov heat power plants included in TGC-5.

Governor Nikolay Shaklein and the executives of Integrated Energy Systems discussed issues of further cooperation between the regional government and the energy holding company. The parties noted the positive experience of joint activities in development of the Region's peat industry. Thanks to their joint work, there is currently a program being implemented in the Kirov Region to promote peat production and further development of promising deposits, and drafting of a corresponding law will soon be completed. The Governor stressed that a wider use of peat as a fuel will in the long term stabilize the power tariffs.

IES-Holding President Mikhail Slobodin informed Nikolay Shaklein of IES-Holding's new business model, which will enable the company to increase the efficiency of management of its strategic power engineering assets. Within the framework of the new model, Urals Generation Division has been established comprising the generating facilities of TGC-9 and a part of the generating facilities of TGC-5. Mikhail Slobodin noted that establishment of the Division will ensure integrity of the management policy and coordination of actions in further implementation of investment programs aimed at construction and upgrading of power facilities.

IES-Holding President introduced to Nikolay Shaklein IES Chief Executive Officer Andrey Shishkin and Executive Vice President and Head of Urals Generation Division Andrey Makarov.

The stay of the IES-Holding top managers in the Kirov Region also included visits to Kirov HPPs for an update on the progress of the construction and upgrading works for the generating facilities under way within the framework of investment projects. In particular, the energy company's top managers inspected the sites being prepared at Kirov HPP-1 and Kirov HPP-3 for construction of new CCGT units and observed reconstruction works at Kirov HPP-4 boiler based on an advanced low-temperature tornado technology.