PRESS: Fortum offers asset swap to Gazprom Energoholding again

MOSCOW, Apr 22 (PRIME) -- Finnish power holding Fortum has again raised the issue of an asset swap with Russia’s Gazprom Energoholding, Kommersant business daily reported on Monday quoting a Fortum letter to Gazprom Energoholding.

Fortum wants to reduce the presence in power generation running on traditional sources and leave only renewable energy source projects in its portfolio to become Russia’s largest green energy firm, Kommersant said.

In the letter sent to Gazprom Energoholding in late 2018, Fortum suggested giving the company’s 29.45% in Territorial Generating Company-1(TGC-1) and either a 1.3-gigawatt (GW) Nyagan GRES power plant in Western Siberia or all other Forum’s assets in Siberia and Urals regions to Gazprom Energoholding in exchange for full control over all TGC-1’s hydropower plants.

In the regions, Fortum controls the TETs-1, TETs-2, TETs-3, and TETs-4 central heating and power plants in the city of Chelyabinsk, the Argayash TETs and the TETs-1 and TETs-2 plants in the city of Tyumen.

TGC-1 owns 40 hydropower plants on the Kola Peninsula, in the republic of Karelia, and in the Leningrad Region with a combined capacity of 2.85 GW, and the company is the only firm besides monopolist Inter RAO allowed to export power to northern Europe.

Besides the stake in TGC-1 and other plants, Fortum owns 30 megawatts (MW) of solar power generation, and plans to build 110 MW more and 1.8 GW of windmill generation together with state nanotechnology company Rusnano.

Fortum declined to comment, while a representative of Gazprom Energoholding said that the company was categorically against the transfer of hydropower plants.

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