Russia’s Boguchanskaya hydroelectric plant has filed a lawsuit against the Boguchansky aluminium smelter seeking to terminate a long-term electricity supply contract, Russian daily Kommersant reported. The power company submitted the claim to the Moscow Arbitration Court on October 12, with preliminary hearings scheduled for February 2027.
The dispute centers on a fixed electricity rate of 0.50 rubles per kilowatt-hour set under a bilateral agreement. Representatives of the Siberian hydro facility said the tariff is roughly one-fifth of average market prices and fails to cover baseline generation costs, resulting in prolonged operational losses. Plant management said the smelter generates strong financial results and should not receive indirect subsidies through suppressed power prices.
Russian metals company Rusal, a joint shareholder in the power facility, said the legal action had not been coordinated with its leadership. Rusal said the contract was signed in 2012 and runs through 2030, matching the amortization schedule for project debt owed to state development bank VEB.RF. The company argued that low-cost energy is essential to maintain the financial stability of the integrated metals and energy project, while enabling the export of low-carbon aluminium.
Industry sources said hydro operator RusHydro, the co-owner of the station, is seeking to increase the tariff to 1.20 rubles per kilowatt-hour. Eugeniya Franke, an analyst at Euler Analytical Technologies, estimated that the current rate reflects an 85 percent discount to wholesale market prices, which is unusually low even for the energy-intensive aluminium sector. Franke added that an increase to 1.20 rubles would still leave the plant with a discount of roughly 70 percent against commercial rates.
