Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref told a government session attended by President Vladimir Putin that a proposed hike in investment was the result of higher-than-expected rates of growth in electricity demand.
He said the ministry had forecast a 2.5% increase in electricity consumption in the first half of the year, but it had grown more than 5% in the reporting period.
"Strong economic growth and private investors' activities has led to growing electricity consumption and the necessity of a significant increase in investment in the energy sector," he said
Gref said investment sources had yet to be ascertained, but that funds could be raised by Russia's electricity monopoly Unified Energy System (UES) from the sale of its power-generating assets.
He said that the government would discuss investment in the electric power sector at the next session, but that nuclear power would not be on the agenda, as the situation in the sector was quite different.
"There is no source other than the government for funding the nuclear power sector," he said, adding that investment in the sector was planned at 18 billion rubles (about $670 million) for 2007 and 53 billion rubles (about $2 billion) for 2008.
