| The North-Western Thermal Power Plant is given to the Italians and Grigory Berezkin Today, the first project in the Russian energy sector to transfer a large power plant under the management of a consortium with the participation of a foreign company is to be launched. The meeting of shareholders of the North-West CHPP should consider and, as expected, approve the agreement with Enel ESN Energo for managing the station and transfer to it the functions of the sole executive body. In turn, the management company will have to raise about $200 million to complete the station.
SZ CHPP, 61.8% of the shares of which belongs to RAO UES of Russia, is one of the largest long-term Russian energy projects: back in the early 90s, construction of a station with a design capacity of 1800 MW began in St. Petersburg. The station was presented by RAO management as the newest facility equipped with advanced binary combined cycle plants. However, by the end of 2000, power engineers managed to launch only the first power unit with a capacity of 450 MW. And since during construction large debts were accumulated to one of the main subcontractors - the Finnish energy company Fortum, most of the electricity is still supplied to Finland to repay them. In 2003, a single unit of the thermal power plant produced 3.282 billion kWh of electricity - 38% more than in 2002.
For the construction of the second power unit, RAO UES held a tender to attract a management company. On February 24, 2004, the board of the energy holding approved a consortium consisting of the Italian Enel and the Russian ESN Energo, Grigory Berezkin, as the winner of the competition. The installed electrical capacity of Enel, the largest energy company in Italy, is 46.5 thousand MW. The ESN Energo company is part of the ESN Group and until last fall managed Kolenergo. Mr. Berezkin was elected General Director of the consortium that will manage the SZ CHPP.
The contract with Enel ESN Energo will be signed on June 28 for a period of three years with the possibility of extension for another year. However, the consortium cannot be a creditor or shareholder of the station and cannot acquire its shares for five years. The Russian-Italian energy union will have to not only organize the raising of about $200 million for the construction of a second power unit with a capacity of 450 MW (RAO UES wants to launch it in 2006), but also build a heating main from the thermal power plant to the northwestern regions of St. Petersburg. In April, the city administration and RAO signed an agreement with Vneshtorgbank, which also pledged to participate in attracting investments for the heating main, without which the heat from the station still warms the air and the Gulf of Finland.
However, Mr. Berezkin, after the consortium’s victory in the competition to manage the SZ CHPP, argued that he would have to face certain difficulties during the construction of the second power unit of the power plant. The fact is that Gazprom does not intend to expand the existing gas pipeline to the SZ CHPP. And if it is not possible to persuade the gas monopolist, the second power unit will be left without fuel. According to the newspaper Vremya Novostey, this problem still remains unresolved.
Last Sunday, Enel Chairman of the Board Piero Nudi, who participated in a meeting of the leaders of the world's largest energy companies with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, told the Vremya Novostei newspaper that the Italian concern expects to act in Russia not only as a company managing energy facilities, but also to buy stakes in wholesale companies. generating companies that are now being created on the basis of the largest power plants in Russia. Dmitry ANDREEV, St. Petersburg |
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