UPDATE 2-Russia's grid operators need aid, delay pricing scheme

* MRSK Holding needs 100 bln rbls in state aid this year

* FSC sees 5 bln rbls net profit, 80 bln rbls revenue in '09

* FSC to borrow 15-20 bln rbls in '09, partly as bonds

* Switch to RAB pricing delayed for some regions until 2010

(Adds FSC borrowing plans)

By Olga Popova

MOSCOW, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Russia's power grid operators need billions of dollars in state support in 2009, and do not expect to switch this year to a new pricing system needed to guarantee profits, a top grid official said on Thursday.

Alexander Chistyakov, the deputy head of the two main state-controlled power grid firms, MRSK Holding (MRKH.MM) and the Federal Grid Co. (FSC) (FEES.MM), said at least some regions would have to delay the switch to regulated asset base (RAB) pricing until 2010.

"We will not switch all of the regions that we wanted to in 2009...It is better to wait until January of 2010," Chistyakov told reporters on the sidelines of a business conference.

Chistyakov also said MRSK Holding is counting on 100 billion roubles ($2.76 billion) in state aid this year.

"In most cases this should come in the form of loans, except in Moscow, where capital injections from the federal and city budgets are more likely," he said. Moscow's grid operator is MOESK (MSRS.MM), which is controlled by MRSK Holding.

The Federal Grid Co., which controls the high-voltage trunk grids spanning the country, still expects to stay out of the red this year, Chistyakov said, but it will need to borrow 15-20 billion roubles, partly in the form of bonds.

In 2009, the company expects net profit of 5 billion roubles ($137.7 million) in 2009 on about 80 billion roubles in revenue, he said, citing forecasts to Russian accounting standards. The firm's results for 2008 are not yet available.

Its borrowing plans call for an issue of infrastructure bonds, Chistyakov said. Under current central bank policies, such bonds can only be issued in Russia for one year, but the government is now debating a change in this policy.

"We have no interest in borrowing any money for less than three years," he said on behalf of the state-controlled FSC.

PRICING SCHEME DELAYED

Russia's grid companies have been counting on the change RAB pricing to guarantee long-term returns on their investments into the power network.

Another senior official at MRSK Holding told Reuters in November that the change was being delayed due to the economic crisis. [ID:nLP49706]

Chistyakov said after the switch is made in 2010, prices will most likely be set for 3 years rather than the 5 years that grid companies had been counting on, giving the firms a shorter term guarantee of profits.

As part of Russia's sweeping reform of the electricity sector, all of Russia's regional grid companies were to transfer by the end of 2010 to the new pricing system.

Modelled on the British reform of the its electricity sector in the 1990s, the scheme sets a stable power distribution tariff every 3-5 years at a rate that guarantees fair returns on the grid firms' investments and encourages spending on new technology.

But as financial turmoil batters Russian industries, lobbying groups have put pressure on the government to delay the switch to RAB pricing due to fears that it would increase costs at a time when margins are already being squeezed.

MRSK Holding controls all of the more localised inter-regional grid companies, or MRSKs, which operate grids in a cluster of Russian regions. (Reporting by Olga Popova; writing by Simon Shuster)