Translated material
Coal auction
Mechel buys Yuzhno-Kuzbasskaya GRES
RAO UES of Russia has fully complied with the order of the Federal Antimonopoly Service issued in 2005 when creating Territorial Generating Company No. 12. Then, so that TGK-12 did not have a monopoly in Kuzbass, the FAS demanded the sale of the West Siberian Thermal Power Plant and the South Kuzbass State District Power Plant, which belong to RAO (22.97% of the shares of each of them), Kuzbassenergo (50% plus one share) and Siberian Coal Energy Company (20.38% shares). The first was sold at auction on March 15 to Evraz Group for 5.95 billion rubles. with a starting price of 5.7 billion rubles. The second - yesterday, the winner was Mechel-Energo, which negotiated with Novosibirskenergo and a certain Joint Investment Company for up to 6.9 billion rubles. (with a starting price of 4 billion rubles). RAO says they are satisfied with the auctions: the first valued the West Siberian Thermal Power Plant at $407 per kW of installed capacity, and the second valued the Yuzhno-Kuzbass State District Power Plant at $513 per kW. For fairly old coal power plants, this is a very respectable price, says a representative of the energy holding. By the way, when Norilsk Nickel bought shares in OGK-3 in early March, it valued the company at $584 per kW of capacity.According to the terms of the sale and purchase of a 93.35 percent stake, RAO said in a statement, the winner will not receive ownership of the station's shares until he puts out an offer to buy out its shares from minority shareholders at the auction price. That is, Mechel may need another 492 million rubles. to purchase shares of minority shareholders if they all want to exercise this right.
If for the Evraz Group the purpose of purchasing a thermal power plant was to optimize the energy supply scheme for its enterprises, then the coal miners essentially fought for the Yuzhno-Kuzbass State District Power Plant, creating a vertically integrated structure. Sources familiar with the course of yesterday's auction claim that the main struggle was between Novosibirskenergo, which is considered close to Kuzbassrazrezugol, and Mechel, which is developing a number of fields in the Southern Kuzbass. Energy adviser to the head of Mechel, Georgy Kutovoy, told Vremya Novostey that the company intends to seriously develop the coal and energy business - “the management has decided to do this radically.”
The installed capacity of the Yuzhno-Kuzbasskaya GRES is 554 MW for electricity and 560 Gcal/h for heat. “The largest metallurgical production facilities in the Kemerovo region are located in the immediate vicinity of the power plant,” RAO said in a press release. “So, the constant load of the Yuzhno-Kuzbass State District Power Plant at a level of approximately 125 MW in the summer and 250 MW in the winter is provided by coal and mining enterprises, as well as public utilities in the south of Kuzbass.”
Mr. Kutovoy says that Mechel's coal enterprises currently produce approximately 7.5 million tons of thermal coal per year in the southern Kuzbass, and production could be doubled if there were a sales opportunity. Therefore, the first thing the company will do is modernize the state district power station: “It needs to be put in order, this is one of the oldest power plants in Russia,” he says. “First of all, it is necessary that environmental standards be observed, ash dumps need to be completed, the fuel utilization rate must be increased, and much more.” How soon this work will be carried out and what investments it will require, Mr. Kutovoy found it difficult to estimate. Now, according to him, the state district power plant, operating far from full capacity, consumes approximately 300 thousand coal per year.
At the same time, according to him, Mechel needs this asset in order to “work out the model of the coal and energy business.” If it turns out to be successful, the company will build new power plants, and one of them in the Moscow region, where it already owns the Moskoks plant. “We have already sent relevant proposals to both RAO and the government of the Moscow region,” says Mr. Kutovoy, “now we are waiting for a response. We want this power plant to be included in the General Scheme for the Location of Energy Facilities in Russia (currently being discussed in the ministries - Ed. ) so that it is taken into account when developing long-term energy balances.”
According to preliminary estimates, he says, the new power plant will have an installed capacity of about 500-600 MW. “We have now invited designers who must answer what maximum power can be built on this site,” said Mr. Kutovoy, “and if they say that it is possible to build a power plant of greater capacity, we will build it.” The minimum construction period, in his opinion, will be three years.
In general, according to Mr. Kutovoy, coal energy “is what dictates the fuel and energy balance.” “It was in vain that we didn’t take the path of creating energy-coal companies earlier,” he says, “after all, now we have come to the point that the energy industry runs mainly on gas, and Gazprom basically only has export obligations, and therefore it is forced to limit energy workers in fuel." After all, as you know, the same Gazprom, which is trying to complete the deal with SUEK by the end of the first half of the year, is going to develop coal generation in Russia itself.