YAROSLAVL, Russia - A major power plant built by a Chinese-Russian consortium has been officially brought online.

The 483-MW gas-steam combined heat and power, or CHP, facility started operations here on Tuesday, China's Huadian Corp announced.

Plans were rolled out for the $571 million joint venture between Huadian and Teninskaya in 2011 by China Huadian Hong Kong Co Ltd and Russian second regional power company TGC-2.

As China's largest electricity project in Russia, the plant was designed to generate 3.02 billion kilowatt hours, of electricity and 814,000 gigawatts of heating supply annually.

"The completion of the Huadian-Teninskaya project is of great significance to the Yaroslavl province (in Russia)," Dmitry Mironov, acting governor of Yaroslavl province, said during the opening ceremony held at the project site. "It will improve the living quality of local citizens."

Listed as a priority project in 2014 by Yaroslavl authorities, the CHP plant is expected to tackle the province's chronic power shortages.

According to TGC staff, the operation of the Huadian-Teninskaya facility will bring down Yaroslavl's power deficit from 50 percent to 15 percent and fully cover its total power demand in warmer months.

The project is widely seen as a symbol of further deepening of cooperation between China and Russia in the energy field.

Wen Shugang, general manager of China Huadian Corp, confirmed that the group will devote more efforts into exploring global energy markets in the future.

During the opening ceremony, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov welcomed the entrance of Chinese companies, including Huadian, into local markets.

Xinhua?