Would you like a 400% raise in your electric bill?

[PrehistoricRez]

Enel Russia & CIS, a leading investor in the Russian power sector, has said regulated power tariffs are too low and suggested that the Kremlin raises them to incentivize the necessary investment in new plant as dictated by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Since market liberalization in 2008, Russia's power plant programme has stalled due to a lack of clarification over the Kremlin's "long-term capacity market" mechanism, which would reward investors for the construction of new power plants.

Prime Minister Putin, who expects 20 GW of new capacity to be installed by 2012, signed a bill last month outlining a capacity market, but analysts say the new mechanism could amount to little more than "a tax and a lottery" and offer no long-term guarantees to investors.
Dominque Fache, general director for Enel Russia & CIS, said the only way for investors to be sure of a return on investment in new plant would be by raising regulated end-user tariffs that are often heavily subsidized.

"It is impossible to get a return on investment given existing electricity prices," said Fache, speaking at the Russia Power conference in Moscow today.

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http://www.power-eng.com/articles/2010/03/enel-demands-russia.html