Croatia: Big players lobbying for TPP Plomin C, GE-Alstom-Marubeni vs European Commission

Published on 28. July 2015., SEE Energy News

TPP Plomin C project became one of the topics in GE acquisition of Alstom Power business in SEE. General Electric, US multinational corporation could became key factor in the project of building unit C in thermal power plant Plomin. Beside contractor Japanese company Marubeni, and European Commission which is investigating the subsidies mechanism and electricity price new unit C TPP Plomin got another big shareholder the US company GE.

GE purchase of French energy giant Alstom is in progress, General Electric is willing to pay 12,4 bilion euros for it, and the Alstom is an important partner of Japanese Marubeni which is the key contractor for TPP Plomin C. Therefore government of Croatia expects support of the USA regarding the pressure from Energy Community which is not still clear on position for this project . Above all, it refers to lobbying the European Commission, which has yet to give the green light for this project whose value is estimated at one billion euros.

EC critics is focused on the part of the contract which refers to amount of electricity price from Plomin C at which the Croatia power utility HEP should take over from Marubeni which will manage the new TPP Plomin C unit. Greenpeace warned that the kwh may be twice as expensive than the market price. That is why the European Commission is now investigating whether this fits agreement between HEP ​​and Marubeni compared with European standards on market supports and subsidies. Local Croatian medias reported that Ministry of Economy, which is responsible for the project, thinks that the chances that the European Commission gives the green light 50 to 50, but hopes that it will eventually happen and that the US will help in lobbying for the construction of Plomin C.

A few months ago in Croatia during the Croatian-American Chamber of Commerce meeting vice president of General Electric John Rice was attending, during which this Plomin C project was discussed.

It is known already that the US is very interested in the Croatian energy projects and support the LNG terminal on Krk and their multinational Marathon Oil show interest to tender for the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in the Adriatic. However, until now US companies were not interested in Plomin C, but after GE decided to buy part of the French corporation Alstom, thermal power station near Labin became the American interest. , transmits Serbia-energy.eu