ST.-PETERSBURG, February 8 - RAPSI. The Lenenergo grid company has appealed in a federal commercial court the judgment to collect $545,000 for the Severstal steel and mining company, the Supreme Commercial Court reports on its website.

The company has challenged the Thirteenth Commercial Appeals Court's December judgment to revise the previous decision passed by the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Regional Commercial Court. The court earlier fully satisfied Severstal's lawsuit to recover from Lenenergo 25.36 million rubles ($843,000) for failing to connect the company to its grid in a timely manner between December 17, 2009 and February 16, 2010.

The higher court cut the penalty, which cannot exceed 30 percent of the connection contract amount of 226.44 million rubles ($7.5 million) by law. The maximum penalty is 67.93 million rubles ($2.25 million).

Severstal is one of the world's leading vertically integrated steel and steel related mining companies, with assets in Russia, North America and Europe.

Lenenergo is one of the largest power network companies in North-Western Russia. Its transmission lines stretch for 35,967 kilometers.