Croatia Power Utility Company(HEP) announced that last week signed an agreement on exclusivity with the Japanese Marubeni Corporation, by which “was successfully completed the first phase of the negotiation process in the selection of strategic partners to build and operate unit C in Thermal power plant Plomin”.
The negotiation process began on September 2nd, 2014th, when Marubeni was selected as the preferred bidder on the basis, as stated in a press release, of a very competitive bid, according the price of construction and to the cost of financing the project.
“With this agreement on negotiation exclusivity in relation to other bidders, there is a possibility to fulfill the conditions for finalizing the transaction documents and to obtain more favorable conditions for the project realization with optimization of technical and commercial conditions”, stand out from HEP.
The project, as added, is fully compliant with European Union regulations regarding the choice of technology and air protection, and the best technical solution with better parameters than requested in the contest and significantly better than prescribed are offered under the bid.
“Project TPP Plomin C provides to Electric Power Industry of Croatia and the Republic of Croatia to maintain favorable structure of the electricity production portfolio. This project is of strategic importance for the long-term stability and security of electricity supply in the Republic of Croatia”, it was said in the statement.
In this sense, as point out in HEP, the European Commission set up communication about the project, in terms of its technical and commercial characteristics and the method of implementation.
“With this project, using the provided technology solutions and participation of domestic industry in its implementation, also there have been achieved significant improvements on the site, with a positive impact on the local economy during construction and during operation of the power plant and the overall positive impact on the Croatian economy”, it is conclusion of a statement .
The signing of the contract on exclusivity in fact opens an opportunity to finalize a contract with Marubeni about Plomin C, but in HEP say that they cannot overlook any details for now with regard the negotiation process is still ongoing.
The investment value in TPP Plomin C, which would use coal, is estimated at about 800 MEUR, it is planned that its installed capacity would be 500 megawatts (MW), and it would replace the existing unit of TPP Plomin which has the power of 125 MW.
HEP began the process of the strategic partner selection for Plomin C at the end of July 2012th, and in that process three bids were received at the end of April 2014th and the ranking list was determined in September last year based on election of the Japanese Marubeni for a preferred bidder, the second-ranked was the offer of the consortium Abeinsa and Daewoo, and the third-ranked was Edison.
Croatia’s government ranked the project Plomin C in May last year on the list of strategic projects of the Republic of Croatia.
