Czech company CEZ, owner of former Electrica Oltenia, says it will invest as much as 800m euros if it wins the tender for the biggest wind farm developed in Europe so far, which is located in Dobrogea and available to buy from Polish investment fund Continental Wind Partners (CWP).
Besides the project, the Czechs are also in talks to secure another 150 MW of wind power. At present, CWP's project has an installed capacity of 347 MW, but it could be expanded to 600 MW (similar to the capacity of a reactor at the Cernavoda nuclear power station).
Six companies initially competed for the project, namely CEZ, Enel (Italy), Iberdrola (Spain), E.ON (Germany), GdF (France) and Petrom, but Enel and Iberdrola subsequently withdrew. The project is worth more than 60m euros.
"I believe we'll end the talks with CWP with a positive result. We may see the outcome in a week, but from our discussions, we have the best offer (...)," says Doru Voicu, business development manager of CEZ Romania.
CEZ's intention in terms of renewable energy is to cover the necessary amount of green certificates through its own production. Each electricity supplier has to generate a certain percentage from renewable sources of the overall energy it delivers.
For instance, this year suppliers are required to generate 5.28% of energy from renewable sources, with this share to increase to 6.78% next year and to 8.3% in 2010.
Another major project CEZ is involved in together with Enel, RWE (Germany), Electrabel (Belgium), Iberdrola, ArcelorMittal Romania jointly with Nuclearelectrica is related to the development of reactors 3 and 4 at Cernavoda.
At present, the project is blocked, after the state decided, after almost 9 months of negotiations with potential investors, that it wants 51% of the project company, despite initially asking for 20%, whilst the value of the project doubled to 4bn euros. Despite these major changes, investors remain interested.
Investors' major question mark is related to the twofold increase in project costs.
"According to our calculations, the price of the project could have risen by 20%, but the 4bn-euro value is too high. (...) At any rate, nobody understands anything about these changes. We are waiting for an explanation about the state's strategy in this project, but I believe we'll see delays this year in comparison with the original project," believes Voicu.
Another project CEZ is involved in entails the privatisation of thermoelectric power stations in Galati and Borzesti. CEZ says that right now it is not interested in taking over a natural gas supplier through which it could provide its customers with a full utility offer. In the long run, the company wants to generate all the energy it sells, namely around 4 TWh.
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