The 3,000-megawatt Boguchansk facility in Krasnoyarsk Territory is being built as part of a partnership agreement between the aluminum giant and electricity monopoly Unified Energy System to set up an energy and metals conglomerate, which will also include an aluminum smelter with an estimated capacity of 600,000 tons.
"We believe the first leg of the Boguchansk will be operational in 2009," Alexander Lifshits said, adding that RusAl would seek co-investment to build the station and an aluminum plant from the Investment Fund, set up in 2005 to develop major nationwide investment projects with joint public-private financing.
"RusAl board has decided to sign a partnership agreement and to approve an application to the Investment Fund," Llifshits told a business forum in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said in December the government expected the first leg of the Boguchansk HPP would be commissioned in 2010.
Investment in the project is expected to top $5 billion.
Lifshits, a former finance minister under president Boris Yeltsin, said the company would take responsibility of social issues, including housing for employees, in exchange for tax privileges from the government.
