Interfax reported that Russian Aluminum or Rusal and OJSC Rosenergoatom have signed a two year agreement on the supply of electric power at a price of three cents per kWh.
A joint statement issued by the companies said that the contract involves the supply of electricity from Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant to Boguchany Aluminum Smelter during the period 2013-2014 (as BAZ is being modernized) in an amount necessary for the production of aluminum at the aluminum plant's sixth series (facilities 5 and 6). Power supply is to begin on the first of next year.
The contract was concluded per deputy prime ministerial instructions and an action plan worked up by the Economic Development Ministry and coordinated with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The parties also inked the agreement in fulfillment of a four-party agreement of September 16 concerning a reduction in the volume of aluminum output at BAZ.
In September, Rusal, which had intended to close the unprofitable aluminum production capacities at BAZ, signed an agreement with the Sverdlovsk regional authorities and BAZ's union to preserve part of the smelter's electrolysis facilities on the condition that the electricity tariff be reduced. At the beginning of November, information surfaced that the Russian government had recommended that Russian State Nuclear Energy Company Rosatom enter into a non-regulated bilateral contract to supply electricity to BAZ in 2013-2014 with an end price of 3 US cents per kWh. BAZ continues to produce alumina for the company's Siberian plants.
BAZ produces aluminum and alumina and specializes in producing aluminum silicon and aluminum magnesium alloys used in engineering and the aircraft industry, as well as for protection against corrosion. The smelter, which is the main local employer, gets its bauxite from the Severouralskoye deposit. The plant is a city backbone company that employs 2,140 people.
Rosenergoatom operates all of Russia's nuclear power plants and is part of state nuclear power corporation Rosatom. The Beloyarsk NPP runs a generating unit with a 600-mWt BN reactor.
