Lithuanian CCGT Plant Gets European Financial Boost

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The construction of a 444-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle gas turbine plant (CCGT) in Lithuania received a welcome financial injection this week following the award of a 71 million euro ($96 million) loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The ERBD has granted the loan to Lithuanian national utility Lietuvos Elektrine AB (VSE:LEL1L) (Elektrenai, Lithuania) in an effort to bridge the power gap created when the country was forced to shut down the ageing Ignalina nuclear power plant at the end of 2009. The ERBD said the project will necessarily be the beginning of other electricity generation projects, as Ignalina accounted for more than 70% of the country's total electricity output and was a key power exporter to neighbouring countries.

The new CCGT will be built at the 1,800-MW thermal Lithuania Power Plant (LPP), located 50-kilometres west of the capital city Vilnius. The plant, which is fired by natural gas, heavy fuel and oil emulsion, was constructed between 1962 and 1972 and has eight generation units. The new unit, which will be supplied by energy company Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construccion SA (Bilbao, Spain) and partners, will replace two of the ageing units that have a combined capacity of 300 MW.

A contract worth 330 million euros ($447.3 million) for the supply and installation of the new CCGT was awarded to Iberdrola and partners last May. The new plant is scheduled to be up and running by 2012. For additional information, see May 1, 2009, article - Iberdrola Secures $432 Million Contract for 444-Megawatt CCGT Power Station in Lithuania.

"Increasing the generation capacity of LPP is a key priority for Lithuania, and the EBRD is pleased to support Lietuvos Elektrine in the implementation of this strategic project," said Nandita Parshad, EBRD director for power and energy. "The construction of the new modern power plant will alleviate the impact of lost capacity in Lithuania and will support the creation of a secure and reliable power system in the region."

Rolandas Jankauskas, chief financial officer of AB Lietuvos Elektrine, said: "We would like to thank the EBRD for helping to bolster the power generation in Lithuania. The Bank's support also demonstrates that Lietuvos Elektrine is creating a competitive and an efficient modern power plant for Lithuania and for the Baltics."

With Ignalina shut down, plans are afoot by a group of Baltic states to build a new nuclear plant. Visagino Atomine Elektrine UAB (VAE) (Vilnius, Lithuania) is a company created by leading power companies in Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland to oversee the building of a new nuclear plant in Lithuania that will provide power for all four countries. The company announced a concession tender for the new plant in December last year. The goal is to have a new plant comprising two or three reactors with a generating capacity of up to 3,400 MW operational between 2015 and 2017. For additional information, see related December 22, 2009, article - Lithuania Announces Concession Tender for Investments in New Nuclear Power Plant.

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