The Yuzhnaya power plant TETs-22 is part of the open joint stock company TGC-1 (Territorial Generating Company-1) which comprises 56 electric power plants in four Russian regions: St Petersburg, the Republic of Karelia, the Leningrad and Murmansk Regions. The company includes 41 hydroelectric power stations, 17 of which are located north of the Arctic Circle, and 14 thermal power plants. The generating capacity of TGC-1 is 6408 MW, and thermal capacity is 14,426 Gcal/h. Almost a third of the company's electrical capacity and more than 70% of its heat generating capacity are concentrated in St Petersburg. The company supplies electricity to the domestic market and exports some to Finland and Norway. The TGC-1 thermal plants provide heating to households and to industry in St Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, Murmansk, Kirovsk in the Leningrad Region and Apatity in the Murmansk Region.

TGC-1 is the leading producer of electricity and a strategic supplier of heat energy in northwestern Russia. The company's share in the thermal energy market is about 48% in St Petersburg, nearly 80% in Petrozavodsk, 75% in Murmansk and 100% in Apatity and Kirovsk.

The company's main shareholders are Gazpromenergoholding (51.79%) and Fortum Power and Heat Oy (25.66%).

In 2010 the thermal networks in the zones covered by TGC-1 were separated into an independent company, the St Petersburg Thermal Network. The new infrastructure enterprise manages both long-distance thermal networks owned by TGC-1 and neighbourhood networks previously run by the State Unitary Enterprise St Petersburg Fuel and Energy Complex. The reorganisation greatly enhanced the reliability of consumer thermal energy distribution and attracted targeted investment in the modernisation and development of the thermal network complex.

The Yuzhnaya TETs provides electricity and heating for industry, residential housing and public buildings in the Moskovsky, Frunzensky and Nevsky Districts of St Petersburg. The population of its distribution area is about 900,000.

The Yuzhnaya TETs project was approved by the USSR Energy Ministry in 1975. The station produced its first heating energy in 1977 and was in full commercial operation by 1978. Over the following eight years, three of the four 250 megawatt units were brought on-line. However, construction was suspended in 1987 because of the shortage of financing.

In 2008 work began to expand the Yuzhnaya TETs by installing a new steam gas generator with a capacity of 450 MWe and 341 Gcal/h thermal energy. Most of the equipment is provided by Russian companies: Silovye Mashiny and Podolsky Zavod. Station capacity will increase from 750 to 1200 Megawatt and the thermal capacity from 2190 to 2531 Gcal/h.

The project will eliminate power shortages in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, reduce air pollution and provide a powerful impetus to the development of the industrial and business complex near the Circular Highway.

The materials and technology used in the project meet international environmental standards. The Yuzhnaya TETs was awarded the certificate of the Environmental Management System on 1 January 2011.