Energy boss's last day at the helm

Anatoly Chubais, the former head of the state electricity monopoly RAO UES has his last working day on Monday as Unified Energy System ends its five-year transition period.

From July 1, UES is to be broken up and restructured into 28 wholesale and territorial generating companies.

The flag of UES formerly flying in front of company’s headquarters in Moscow has been lowered, and the flags of the new energy companies have been run up in its place. This action marked the the last day of the monopoly’s existence.

The Vedomosti business daily quotes Anatoly Chubais, who predicts further increases in the consumer price of electricity.

One of the new companies created by the reorganisation is OGK-1, for which UES has signed a sale agreement with Roskommunenergo and Dubai World. They've agreed on a price of $US516 per kilowatt.

That's lower than the $525 originally hoped for by the generating company, but higher than the proposed purchase price of $420.