According to a ministry press release, Khristenko said Monday that lessons learned from the recent blackouts in Moscow and an analysis of the situation in the provinces made the need for speedy consolidation of the grid assets under government control all the more obvious. "There is, objectively, no room for private enterprise in managing and operating the grid component," he said. He also said that private shareholders were too preoccupied with the forthcoming detachment of electricity generating units to be able to pay due attention to the operation of the grid.
According to the minister, Russia is now working toward creating its own model for managing the electricity industry.
The May 24 breakdown at an electricity substation led to outages in five of Moscow's boroughs and in three surrounding regions, causing major disruptions in public transportation and telephone service.
