Electrabel 'looking into' expanding in Poland, denies will invest 2.5 bln eur
September 24, 2007: 11:56 AM EST
BRUSSELS, Sep. 24, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- Belgium's largest power company Electrabel, a subsidiary of French utility Suez (NYSE:SZEZY) , says it is planning to invest in the construction of a coal plant as well as wind turbines in Poland, but rejects press reports claiming that the investment will total 2.5 bln eur.
'We are indeed looking at possibilities to build a coal station in Poland in light of a greater need for increased production capacity', Electrabel spokeswoman Lut Vande Velde told Thomson Financial News.
'We are also looking into investing in wind turbines', she added, but stresses that the plans are yet to be finalised.
Polish daily Puls Biznesu reported today that the company will invest 2.5 bln eur in a power plant and wind farms in Poland as demand for electricity is set to soar, quoting the head of its Polish unit.
But Vande Velde said that this amount is 'a rough estimate made by the newspaper itself'.
Grzegorz Gorny, who heads the company's Polish operations, told Puls Biznesu that Electrabel has bid alongside France's EDF and Sweden's Vattenfall to build a coal- and biomass-powered power plant in Gdansk on the Baltic coast.
The plant could be ready by the end of 2012, the paper said.
'In the first stage we would like to build an 800 megawatt block,' Gorny was quoted as saying. 'We estimate the outlays at 1 bln eur. In the second stage we want to add another block of the same capacity for another 1 bln eur.'
Electrabel, which owns Poland's fifth-largest power plant in the south-eastern town of Polaniec, also plans to spend 500 mln eur by 2012 to build wind farms with a combined capacity of 300 megawatts.
'The farms will be situated in southern Poland due to good wind conditions,' Gorny told the daily. 'We should receive the first approval to start the project in October 2008.'
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