Electric power consumption in Russia has returned to the level registered before the global economic and financial crisis hit the country in 2008, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

"In January, electric power consumption returned to the pre-crisis level and equaled 103 billion kilowatt hours," Putin said at a meeting in East Siberia to discuss investment in the electric power sector.

Putin said electric power consumption had returned to its pre-crisis level primarily due to the unusually cold winter, but that it was also the result of rebounding industrial production, which had stimulated demand for electricity.

Putin also said Russia's electric power sector must be prepared to meet the country's growing requirements or face "bottlenecks" in economic growth.

The Russian premier added that Russian electric power companies had ineffectively spent 66 billion rubles ($2.2 billion) out of 450 billion rubles ($14.9 billion) allocated from state coffers for investment projects in the electric power sector.

"According to the latest data, out of this sum, 270 billion rubles [$8.9 billion] was spent directly on investment projects, while 66 billion rubles went to finance the current operations of companies and the purchase of non-core assets with no relation to the country's electric power sector," Putin said.

The premier said investment programs currently stipulated the construction of about 100 power units across the country while full-fledged work was being carried out at only 38 of them.

During his visit to the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant in East Siberia, severely damaged in an accident last year that killed 75 people, Putin launched the plant's sixth hydropower unit into industrial operation in a ceremony signifying the gradual restoration of the country's largest hydroelectric dam back to its designed capacity.

Putin said that the hydropower power plant will be able to generate 2,500 MW by the end of the year, after the fifth, third and fourth units are put into operation.

CHERYOMUSHKI (Republic of Khakasia), February 24 (RIA Novosti)