‘We received a proposal from an American businessman Andrew Welch at the beginning of winter. His idea regarding Artemovskaya heat and power plant was to have a Chinese coal station transferred there. LP Amina, his company, was willing to invest some $5m in order to co-won the station, provided that Sverdlovsk Region’s government delivers all the equipment necessary for the installation and hookup of the Chinese unit. However, a body of experts considered the project and said it could not be implemented: investing in somebody else’s property would have to be very large, and the machinery was not reliable enough,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s Energy & Communal Housing Services Ministry’s press secretary Elena Ilyina informed UrBC.

In the meantime, the town of Artemovskiy finds itself in very trying circumstances at the moment. According to Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities, the town’s only power supplier Artemovskaya heat and power plant currently owns millions to the natural gas and electric power suppliers. Besides, the plant recently set up a number of daughter enterprises which are supposed to be responsible for some of the company’s actual functions. This was why the prosecution authorities coordinated an inspection of the plant in compliance with Articles 144 and 145 of the Russian Federation Code of Penal Procedure.