The chief executive of UC Rusal has met with Russian energy minister to
discuss energy supply after an accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya
hydropower plant in Siberia, including the possible reduction of
aluminum smelter output to relieve the regional grid, it said Monday.
Six people died and eight were injured Monday in an accident
at a hydroelectric station at Sayano-Shushenskaya in eastern Siberia, a
local official of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said.
Several aluminum plants in the Khakasia region lost power
after the accident, the official said. Rusal didn't say whether or not
its own operations have been affected.
The meeting between Rusal's Oleg Deripaska and Minister of
Energy Sergei Shmatko was also attended by the Minister for Emergency
Situations Sergei Shoygu and chairman of the board of state-controlled
hydro power monopoly RusHydro (HYDR.RS), Vyacheslav Sinyugin. Rusal's
most energy-intensive smelters are in Siberia. In Khakasia these are
Sayanogorsk, Rusal's third largest primary aluminum producer with
output of 537,000 metric tons in 2008 and Khakas, which produced
300,000 tons last year.
"Meeting participants discussed different scenarios of using
back-up capacities for uninterrupted supply of energy to Rusal's
facilities," the company said.
"One of the issues discussed was a possibility to reduce the
output at Rusal's smelters to create additional reserve of energy
required for stable functioning of the region on the eve of the
autumn-winter season when the load on the energy system increases."
RusHydro, which owns 25 gigawatts of hydro-electric
capacity, has said it wants to build new aluminum smelters in Russia.
The company is partnering Rusal in the construction of a three-gigawatt
hydropower plant in Siberia, which will feed the Boguchansk aluminum
smelter, also jointly built by Rusal and RusHydro.