PRESS: Technopromexport, Fortum, En+ may build Taman power plant

MOSCOW, Aug 16 (PRIME) -- Energy facilities developer Technopromexport, power producer Fortum Russia and En+ Group may be interested in building a thermal power plant on Russia’s southern Taman Peninsula near Crimea, Vedomosti daily reported on Wednesday.

Fortum and En+ declined to comment, while a Technopromexport representative said his company is interested in the project and plans to participate in the tender, but will make a final decision after the tender conditions are disclosed.

A government official said that the power facility is to be built in any event to start operations in 2020. The tender will be held until the end of this year. A representative of the Energy Ministry said that the tender will be announced soon.

Construction of the facility has been discussed since summer of 2015. It is the plant, for which Technopromexport, a Rostec company, ordered four turbines from Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies, a joint venture between Siemens and Power Machines. At first the plant was to have a capacity of 600 megawatt, but later it was lowered to 460 megawatt. Investors were offered to build the project under a 15-year power purchase agreement guaranteeing a 14% annual return on investment.

Rostec had asked the government to choose Technopromexport as a contractor without a tender, but when the tender was finally launched, neither Technopromexport nor other investors were satisfied with its terms and declined to participate.

Director of the Energy Development Fund Sergei Pikin said the tender should be held as soon as possible as the power systems of Crimea and Russia’s southern regions, where the government had to introduce pauses in power supplies because of the hot weather, need an urgent upgrade.

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