RusHydro, which owns most of Russia's hydroelectric stations, reduced electricity output 18% in the first half of 2010 year- on-year to 37.554 billion kilowatt-hours, the company's press service said, citing preliminary data.
The reduction mainly reflects the drop in output from the Sayano- Shushenskaya hydropower plant, which was knocked out of action by a blast on August 17, 2009. Two of the plant's 10 hydropower units were brought back into service earlier this year.
Excluding Sayano-Shushenskaya, RusHydro boosted output 1% in the six months year-on-year.
RusHydro said in materials that it targeted production of 35.239 billion kWh in the first half and 71.399 billion kWh in the full year.
The hydrological situation in Siberia was favorable, with a substantially above-average inflow of water in spring.
In the Far East, the big addition in spring comes on top of above- average water levels in power station reservoirs at the end of December 2009. Capacity utilization at the Zeiskaya and Bureiskaya plants was above target through the first half in order to bleed off excess water.
The additional electricity made it possible to reduce output from thermal plants and increase exports to China.
As a result, output from RusHydro hydroelectric stations in Siberia and the Far East, excluding Sayano-Shushenskaya, rose 19% to 11.986 billion kWh.
The hydrological situation was unfavorable in the European portion of Russia, with the lower than average spring melt compared with 2009 imposing constraints on electricity output. Low water levels in the Kuibyshev Reservoir could produce reduction in output from stations on the Lower Volga in the second half of the year.
However, rainfall has created a favorable situation on the Upper Volga, enabling increased output from the Nizhny Novgorod and Cheboksary plants.
RusHydro power stations in the central regions of the European portion of Russia produced 20.890 billion kWh, 8% less than in the same period last year.
In the Northern Caucasus, the hydrological situation was favorable, enabling the RusHydro plants there to boost output 32% to 4.678 billion kWh.
State-controlled RusHydro has over 25,000 megawatts of hydroelectric capacity (including Sayano-Shushenskaya).
