The price set by the Market Council for capacity from Mosenergo's recently built power plants was one-third lower than what Mosenergo had requested, which resulted in 300 million rubles ($9 million) of losses in the first quarter, Fyodorov said.
"Even though the prices had fallen because of a drop in consumption, the Market Council set the level of projected profits from electricity prices on the day-ahead market too high, thereby pushing down the capacity price," Fyodorov said on the sidelines of the Russia Power conference.
The Market Council calculates capacity prices in inverse proportion to the projected energy prices on the day-ahead market.
Power consumption fell by 6.7 percent in the first quarter, according to the Energy Ministry.
The fall in profitability, along with tightened access to credit, has made Mosenergo incapable of building new power stations as required by the Energy Ministry, he said.
The Energy Ministry on Monday announced a list of 19 power plants that must be built by 2014 regardless of the country's economic condition.
Mosenergo, 57 percent owned by Gazprom, is required to build three new stations in Moscow with a total capacity of 1.2 gigawatts by 2012, Deputy Energy Minister Vyacheslav Sinyugin said in the presentation Monday.
"If we have a return on the investment of 2 percent to 10 percent, with bank rates varying from 17 to 20 percent, it simply doesn't make sense," Fyodorov said. "How can the ministry demand that we build new stations in this situation?"
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