In a landmark development, Italian power firm Enel has launched a second 450MW CCGT unit at the thermal power plant serving north-western Russia.
Through adding the second unit, Enel, together with local partner ESN-Energo, has doubled the capacity at the power plant to to 900MW.
To underline the significance of the project and the good relations between Italy and Russia in the energy industry, the ceremony was attended by Russian president Vladimir Putin, the CEO of RAO Unified Energy System (RAO UES), Anatoly Chubais, the CEO of Esn, Grigory Berezkin and, on the Italian side, by the minister for industry, Pierluigi Bersani, as well as Piero Gnudi and Fulvio Conti, chairman and CEO of Enel, respectively.
The achievement is the culmination of a pioneering process that began in February 2004 when the Enel-Esn consortium won the tender for the management of the north-west Power Plant (NWTPP).
The management contract required the consortium to take sole responsibility for operating the plant and for organizing project finance to the value of approximately $125 million, aimed at completing the construction of a second production unit. The project was completed ahead of schedule and increased NWTPP’s overall capacity to 900MW.