OREANDA-NEWS. September 16, 2009. Russia’s Energy Ministry expects power consumption to reach the pre-crisis level in 2012-2013, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said. The ministry anticipates power demand to grow 0.4% in 2010, 1.8% in 2011 and 3.1% in 2012, Shmatko told the media Tuesday pointing to stabilizing demand after several months of weakening in the conditions of the economic recession. “We think the 2008 level of power consumption, i.e. what we had before the crisis, will be reached approximately in 2012-2013,” he said. The Energy Ministry projected electric power output to drop 3.8% to 984.7 bn kWh in 2009 and electricity consumption to decline 4.5% to 970.9 bn kWh.