The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced that it is lending $364 million to a Polish joint venture for construction of a new combined cycle gas turbine power station, to help the country diversify away from coal-fired generation. The joint venture consists of Polish utility Tauron, and the state-owned national gas and oil company PGNiG. It plans to build a 450MW CCGT power plant in Stalowa Wola.
The facility, which will cost a total of $486 million, is scheduled to start operating in late 2015. It will also provide 240MW of thermal output for heating homes.
GE will provide a Frame 9F 5-series gas turbine and generator to Spain’s Abengoa, the EPC contractor for the Polish project. GE has also signed a separate contract with Abengoa to provide maintenance services for the plant for 12 years.
A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and ING said that there are plans for more CCGT-based power generation capacity in Poland, including a 900MW unit planned by Tauron and the Polish mining company KGHM in Blachownia, an 840MW CCGT plant from state-owned Polska Grupa Energetyczna, and a 900MW unit from Energa in Grudziadz.