Electrabel’s $4.25 Billion Power Investment Part of European Strategy

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Electrabel (Brussels), the SUEZ Group’s (NYSE:SZE) (Paris, France) Belgium-based power company, is investing $4.25 billion in the construction of five new power stations in the Benelux countries and Germany which will be commissioned between 2009 and 2012.

The total power generating capacity of the five will be 3,200 MW made up of two combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units at the company’s Flevo site in the Netherlands and a coal/biomass fired unit at Massvlakte in Rotterdam. In Germany, two coal fired power stations will be constructed in Stade, Brunsbuttel or Wilhelmshaven The gas fired units will each have a generating capacity of 400 MW and the coal fired units 800 MW each. Contracts have been signed by Electrabel with Japan’s Hitachi for the construction of the coal fired units to be commissioned in 2012 and with France’s Alstom for the gas fired units to be commissioned in 2009.

Electrabel has plans to expand its presence in northwestern Europe. The increase in the interconnection capacities between Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany as well as the interlinking of the Belgian, French and Dutch electricity markets favors trade between these increasingly integrated markets. In anticipation of these developments Electrabel has been taking positions in these countries which provide greater freedom in the selection of locations for new generation units.

The company aims to maintain a high level of diversity within the group’s generating equipment in Europe in the long term. It allows for a balanced combination of nuclear, renewable and proven technologies and fuels. The state-of-the-art coal fired power stations will gradually replace older units and improve the company’s energy and environmental performance.

This strategy also fits the Suez Group’s objectives of a global generating capacity of 75,000 MW by 2012 from the current 52,000 MW and confirms the group as a key player in Benelux and Germany.

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