Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- E.ON AG, Germany’s largest utility, postponed the commissioning of a coal-fired unit in Russia and ruled out further power acquisitions in the country for at least three years because of the economic slowdown.

Weaker Russian power demand may lower the load factor of E.ON’s plants in the country to about 70 percent from 75 percent last year, Sergei Tazin, E.ON Russia’s chief, told reporters on Sept. 12 in Surgut, where the utility runs its biggest Russian plant. E.ON controls the Moscow-based OAO OGK-4 generator.

“I see us growing organically here, that is by fulfilling existing investment obligations,” E.ON management board member Lutz Feldmann said at the same briefing. E.ON will invest 2.3 billion euros ($3.35 billion) on new natural gas and coal-fired capacity in Russia through 2013, with about half the financing coming from borrowings, he said.

The worst global economic slump since the Great Depression has led energy companies including E.ON to review investment plans and delay projects worldwide after power consumption fell and financing became harder to obtain. Russia’s delay in setting up a long-term capacity market has created an additional hurdle for utilities seeking funds. Russian power output fell 6.6 percent in the first eight months of the year.

Russia, which has the world’s fourth-largest electricity industry, will probably spell out the rules for a long-term power capacity market before winter, Tazin said.

Should capacity payments be set at a “reasonable” level, E.ON will be able to recoup investments in new Russian power facilities within seven to 10 years, Feldmann said.

E.ON will delay commissioning an 800-megawatt, coal-fired block at its Berezovskaya plant in Siberia by a year until 2013 because of weaker demand, Tazin said. The Energy Ministry has agreed to the delay, he added.

The German utility plans to add 2,300 megawatts of capacity in Russia, mostly gas-fired, within about three years. That will boost E.ON’s capacity in Russia to 11,000 megawatts, equal to the company’s U.K. presence, Feldmann said.

“In the long-term, the Russian market will enjoy above- average growth and strong demand for new generation capacity,” Feldmann said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yuriy Humber in Moscow at yhumber@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 14, 2009 02:00 EDT