ENEL: WORK BEGINS ON REPOWERING OGK-5 S SREDNEURALSKAYA POWER PLANT NEAR EKATERINBURG

• Works have begun on a 410 MW combined-cycle plant that will enter service in 2010, with an investment of 350 million euros.
• Fulvio Conti :”We want to confirm the leading role of Enel in the process of development of the energy sector started by the Russian Government”.

Ekaterinburg/Rome – 13 September 2008. Fulvio Conti, Enel CEO and General Manager and Eduard Rossell, governor of the Sverdlovsk Oblast Region in the Urals today laid the cornerstone of the new 410 MW combined-cycle unit at the OGK-5 power station of Sredneuralskaya near Ekaterinburg. The new plant is scheduled to enter operations in 2010. The total investment will come to about 350 million euros. The project is part of the plan to modernize and upgrade the plants of OGK-5, the generation company in which Enel has a majority stake.

Fulvio Conti emphasised that "with today’s inauguration we are confirming our commitment in Russia, a country that has started a major process of development of the energy sector, in which we want to participate by bringing our experience. We have built an integrated presence along the entire value chain, from raw materials to the generation and sale of electricity, creating a strategically important position for Enel in a market, which is undergoing liberalisation, that is one of the largest in the world and promises an excellent return on our investment".

OGK-5’s investment plans for the 2008-2012 period call for the installation of two combined-cycle units with a total capacity of 820 MW, both due to enter operations by the end of 2010, and a series of investments to increase the efficiency and useful life of the plants while reducing their environmental impact, for a total of about 1.5 billion euros.

Enel has been in Russia since 2004, as the operator of the NWTTP power plant at St. Petersburg, overseeing the doubling of its capacity. This task was successfully performed in  November 2006 and in the same year Enel acquired 49.5% of RusEnergoSbyt, the largest independent energy trading company in Russia. In April 2007, in a joint venture with Eni, Enel acquired a number of natural gas fields in the Yamal peninsula, with reserves (P1+P2) of about 700 billion cubic metres, equivalent to approximately 4.2 billion BOE (Barrel of Oil Equivalent), and a further availability of oil and other hydrocarbons for further 800 million BOE should be added. Thanks to its share, Enel will supply about 50% of the natural gas requirements of the OGK-5 plants beginning in 2011. Between June 2007 and June 2008 Enel acquired a majority stake in OGK-5, partly through a public tender offer, the first ever carried out in Russia by a foreign operator.

OGK-5 is one of six national-level generation companies in Russia that had been involved in the privatisation process. It has four power plants with a total capacity of about 8,700 MW, three of which are gas-fired and one coal-fired, located in some of the most developed and fastest growing regions of the country.

In addition, in March 2007, Enel signed a memorandum of understanding with Rosatom (the Russian atomic energy agency) for the joint development of nuclear power skills and new plants. During 2007, Enel also completed a pilot project in cooperation with BelgorodEnergo, an electricity distribution company, for the installation of 1,500 advanced digital metres.

Today, Enel is a vertically integrated player in Russia, active in the entire value chain of the energy industry, from gas fields to the generation, distribution and sale of electricity.