The Belarusian nuclear power plant is faced with the problem of payback
The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is opening financing for the construction of new gas power units at the Minsk CHPP-5 with a capacity of 300 MW, but the payback and loan repayment mechanism is still unclear.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, Kommersant writes.
Thus, the EDB provided Minskenergo with financing in the amount of 101,2 million euros for the construction of a peaking plant with a capacity of 300 MW at the site of Minsk CHPP-5 (current capacity 720 MW). EDB financing is intended for the purchase of Siemens Energy AB turbines. Commissioning of the installation is scheduled for 2022, it is necessary for the backup of the Belarusian NPP.
In total, to reserve the power of the BelNPP, it is necessary to build four peak power plants based on gas turbine units or gas piston units.
At the same time, the key question remains how the installations will pay for themselves and how Minsk will repay the EDB loan.
One of the publication’s interlocutors in the industry explains that the return of funds will come from operating activities. In turn, Sergey Rozhenko from KPMG notes that the installations themselves are designed to cover uneven load patterns and are not designed for base loading and export.
“The payback of such stations is only possible if there is a payment scheme for the readiness of power for launch,” says Rozhenko.
“The BelNPP was originally built for export to the EU, but Lithuania and Poland have already refused to import, and Belarus itself does not need that much electricity. One of the possible sales options is in the Russian Federation after the launch of a single market in 2025, but the prospects for exporting electricity to the energy-proficient European part of the Russian Federation are also not obvious,” the publication writes.
As PolitNavigator reported, Lithuania persuades Lukashenko to close the BelNPP against the backdrop of huge concessions to Russia on the station.
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