Cuciurgan power plant warns over possibility to stop supplying electricity to Odessa region

The Cuciurgan power plant has notified the Ukrainian region of Odessa over a possible suspension of current supplies in connection with some check-ups, manager Sergey Siskov was quoted as saying by Russian media. ”The equipment of the power station is very used and we are going to repair it. From this reason, the station will suspend its work for a while. We are not to blame that Odessa could remain without electricity for a couple of months, but this is the problem of the Ukrainian authorities,” Siskov said. He noted that the Cuciurgan plant is almost the only electricity provider in the Odessa region and the station administration has warned more than once last winter that the station could suspend its activity because Moldova refused to pay 4.08 cents per kWh instead of 3.05 cents. „Chisinau did not accept these conditions and decided to acquire energy from Ukraine in exchange for 2.5 cents. As a result, only one out of 12 blocs of the station is working.” However, the Moldovan government considers that the decision to suspend the activity of station is based on political reasons and aims to pressure Kiev, which introduced a new customs regime at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border on March, according to Moscow media. Tiraspol has described these measures as am „economic blockade” and banned the transit of Moldovan and Ukrainian commodities through its territory. The Cuciurgan power plant is owned by Russia’s giant RAO EES Rossii, which has purchased the enterprise from the Russian-Belgian firm St. Gideon. In turn, St. Gideon has privatised the power plant despite the interdiction of the Moldovan authorities to sell the public patrimony in the Transnistrian region. The Cuciurgan power plant, the largest energy station in the former USSR and East Europe, stopped supplying electricity to the right bank of the Dniester river on November 1, 2005. Moldova bought electricity to cover about 70 percent of its needs from this enterprise. Chisinau paid five million dollars a month, while the supply contract should be in force by August 2006.