The power holding, majority-owned by Viktor Vekselberg, was among three private companies that Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko reprimanded on April 16 for not investing enough in electricity assets. He said IES had shown poor progress on its investment plans.
"Fulfilling our investment obligations in full is a priority task for IES," the company said in an e-mailed statement. The 22.2 billion rubles will be spent on new generating units in Perm, Kirov and the Samara region cities Syzran and Novokuybyshevsk as well as modernizing the Sormov power station in the Nizhny Novgorod region. IES invested 2.4 billion rubles of the total in the first quarter, it said.
The company did not give any comparison figures for 2008, as it acquired some of its assets through the year.
IES also said it was negotiating changes in its power stations' locations.
"Because of significant changes in electricity demand and the changes in the plans of big industrial electricity consumers, IES is considering some alternate sites to build new capacity," the statement said. "A decision on the changes will be made in consultation with the Energy Ministry."
The Novo-Bogoslovskaya power station in the Sverdlovsk region and Novo-Bereznyakovskaya station in the Perm region were discussed for possible relocation, IES spokeswoman Nadezhda Rukina said.
"As RusAl froze the building of its electrolysis production line and the expansion of the alumina production at its plant [in the north of the Sverdlovsk region] indefinitely, we think 1,000 megawatts of our new power station will have no demand there," Rukina said.
Calls to RusAl's press service went unanswered Thursday evening.
IES also wants to cancel the construction of a unit at the Novo-Bereznyakovskaya power station because the local soda producers are unlikely to expand in the near future, Rukina said. "We want to build the capacities we planned to have there somewhere else," she said.
Electricity consumption fell 11 percent in the first quarter, year on year, and was expected to plummet by as much as 9 percent for the year.
Shmatko said April 16 that the Energy Ministry would allow changes to the investment plans by private investors, including delays and changing locations.
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