Loan to pump up Polish gas business

WARSAW

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is supporting the modernisation of the Polish power sector with a long term senior loan of up to PLN 283 million (69 million euros equivalent) for the construction of a new combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant in Stalowa Wola, a city of around 65.000 inhabitants in the South East of Poland.

The new plant will have a capacity of 449 MWe/240 MWt generated by the country’s first large scale gas fired power plant. The new facility will replace the old coal-fired power units at the Stalowa Wola plant and is expected to lead to a carbon emissions reduction by at least 950.000 tons of CO2 per annum.

The project company is owned, in equal shares, by Tauron Wytwarzanie S.A. and PGNiG Energia S.A., subsidiaries of the leading Polish power utility Tauron and the country’s biggest gas company PGNiG, respectively together the sponsors. The project is part of an ambitious Polish program driven by the need to decommission and replace obsolete, inefficient and ecologically harmful power units.

The EBRD funding of PLN 566 million was equally divided into a loan of up to PLN 283 million to be taken on its own books. PLN 283 million was syndicated to Pekao S.A.. The European Investment Bank (EIB) will
provide a parallel loan of up to PLN 566 million.