OREANDA-NEWS. On 1 August 2008 was announced, that the power plants comprised by IES-Holding produced 36.067 billion KWh of power in the first half of 2008, or 5.25% more than in the first half of 2007. It should be noted that power consumption in the UES of Russia in general grew by 4.4% from January through June 2008 as compared with the first six months of 2007.

This output increase has been achieved owing to efficient operations of the holding-company's businesses in the electric power wholesale market, which brought about an optimal correlation between the plants' load regime and the electric power demand.

Heat output by IES power plants and boiler-houses in the first six months of 2008 reached 68.9 million Gcal, a 1.2% drop on the same period of 2007. This is mainly explained by lower heat consumption due to higher air temperatures as compared with 2007, since heating and hot water supplies prevail in the plants' heat output pattern.

According IES-Holding Operations Director Andrey Shishkin, "the holding company's strategic plans provide for a considerable further increase in electric power and heat production. It will be ensured by construction of new power plants within the framework of the holding company's investment program and centralization of the generation capacity load management functions within the newly established Trading Division. This unit will take care of formation and implementation of the IES unified strategy in the Russian electric power and capacity wholesale market".