Moscow Mayor - Winter Energy Supplies May Be 20% Below What's Needed - AFP

[hatrack]

Moscow's mayor warned Tuesday that the capital could face an energy deficit of 20% this winter, sparking concerns that temporary business closures seen in January could be repeated. "Energy consumption is abnormal at present and the deficit registered in the past is very large," Yury Luzhkov said.

Energy consumption levels in the Russian capital rose to historic highs last winter as the cold snap reached its peak in January-February, when temperatures in Moscow were periodically dropping as low as -32C (-25.6F).

Moscow energy utility Mosenergo was forced to cut supplies to some industrial and commercial consumers in order to maintain power and heat deliveries to residential customers and critical services.

"This year this deficit could grow another 8% if Unified Energy System does not come up with the necessary solutions," Luzhkov said, adding that energy deficit is becoming an urgent problem with the economy's rapid growth.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Moscow_Mayor_Says_Winter_Energy_Deficit_Could_Reach_20_Percent_999.html

[pooja]

1. Didn't I just see an article that said Russia re-paid a 20bil. loan

due to sales of oil? Maybe I'm wrong...maybe they were sellig other things and called it oil....

[Dead_Parrot]

2. I'm guessing it's an infrastructure problem

Russia has plenty of oil and gas, but if the pipelines and storage aren't big enough to get it out to people fast enough, it might as well not exist.

I'd guess a lot of the distribution hardware is still Soviet-era stuff, which won't help - There was no Soviet version of "Quality control"... :)

[Javaman]

3. But hey, with global warming, what's the problem?

Oy, we as a world have truly painted ourselves into a corner.