On June 29, Minsk /Anna Kot - BELTA/. Belarusian consumers will not suffer from the cessation of Russian electricity imports, which occurred today at 00:00, Lyudmila Zenkovich, assistant to the Minister of Energy of Belarus, told a BELTA correspondent. "Currently, the Ministry of Energy and the Belenergo State Production Association are taking all necessary measures to resolve this situation," she noted. The share of Russian electricity in Belarus's daily energy consumption balance is 12%. This year, Belarus intends to import 3 billion kWh of electricity from Russia under a contract with Inter RAO UES. At the same time, Belarusian consumers are not dependent on electricity imports, as the republic has sufficient own energy capacities. For example, the total electricity consumption in Belarus in 2010 was 37.46 billion kWh, while electricity generation by Belenergo sources amounted to 32.3 billion kWh, and by block stations - 2.26 billion kWh. In January-May 2011, 14 billion kWh of electricity were produced, with 2.5 billion kWh generated in May. Electricity imports are carried out primarily for the diversification of the republic's fuel and energy balance, as well as based on economic feasibility. Inter RAO UES OJSC stopped electricity supplies to Belarus due to the Belarusian side's debt. In early June, the debt amounted to 1.5 billion Russian rubles. On June 10, Belarusian-Russian negotiations were held in Moscow, during which a payment schedule for the debt for Russian electricity was discussed. Following the meeting, a payment schedule was signed, according to which the Belarusian side undertook to pay off the debt for March-May by July 5 in three tranches. The first tranche of payment towards the debt was approximately one-third of the total amount and was made by Belenergo SPO on June 14. The second tranche was scheduled for June 20, but the Belarusian side could not make it due to the lack of the necessary amount of currency. Inter RAO UES OJSC is a Russian electric power company controlling a number of generating and distribution energy assets in Russia and abroad. The total installed capacity of the company's power plants is about 28 GW. -0-

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