Russia cutting new power capacity goals -regulator

* State plan of 6.4 gigawatts/yr is unrealistic -regulator

* Expects 4.0-4.5 gigawatts/yr to be built in 2009-2010

* Says power consumption to fall 4.5 percent in 2009

MOSCOW, March 24 (Reuters) - Russia will be able to build 30 to 40 percent less new electricity capacity over the next two years than it had planned before the global downturn, an industry regulator said on Tuesday.

The government plan for the sector calls for a total of 12.8 gigawatts of new power turbines to be built in 2009 and 2010.

"I don't believe in these figures," said Igor Kozhukhovsky, head of the state Electricity Balance Prognostication Agency.

"To put on line 6.4 gigawatts of power per year is not realistic. My estimate is for a maximum of between 4.0 and 4.5 gigawatts per year," he added.

The financial crisis has forced large-scale production cuts at some of Russia's most energy-intensive industries, such as mining and steel, pushing down the demand for power by almost 8 percent in January and 5 percent in February, year-on-year.

Kozhukhovsky said the consensus forecast is for a 4.5 percent drop in Russian power consumption in 2009.

Before the crisis engulfed Russia last autumn, the official forecast was for electricity use to grow 4 percent per year through 2011 on hopes that Russia's oil-driven decade of rapid growth would continue.

Based on this forecast, which has now been turned on its head, electricity producers laid out ambitious plans jointly to build hundreds of new turbines over the next five years. Many of them have since realised that so much new capacity will not be needed amid the slowdown.

Some have also had trouble financing new construction as credit dries up on international capital markets.

Major power producer OGK-1 (OGK1.MM) said on Tuesday that the new turbine unit it had planned to install in 2009 in Urengoi, a natural gas producing region, would not be ready even by 2010 due to a lack of financing. [ID:nLO337159] (Reporting by Olga Popova, writing by Simon Shuster, editing by Anthony Barker)