The Moscow regional government and UES have entered into an investment agreement to construct and upgrade power facilities in the Moscow region, where demand is growing at 4.5% annually.

The agreement, which runs until 2013, will see about 4,300 MW of generating capacity built and upgraded, substations of varying voltages with a combined transformer capacity of 2,229 MVA, and 150 km of transmission lines in the bulk power grids, as well as substations with a transformer capacity of 7,156 MVA and 590.8 km of lines in the regional distribution system.

The deal will also see the temporary deployment of mobile gas turbine power stations in the in the West and North-West parts of the region’s energy system to ensure system reliability during peak load periods.

Eight such units are to be deployed at the substations of Daryino, Pavshino, Peredeltsy and Barvikha, where overload in tie substations and power grids reaches maximum levels. Two of the temporary stations will be temporarily deployed at the Rublevo substation in Moscow under an earlier agreement.

The cost of projects is estimated at around RUB180 billion ($6.84 billion), of which RUB125 billion ($4.75 billion) will be used to expand generation capacity and RUB55 billion ($2.1 billion) will be invested in power grid facilities.