The largest Romanian oil and gas company OMV Petrom celebrates 10 years since the commissioning of its gas-fired Brazi power plant, during which, it generated a total of over 32 TWh of electricity.
Member of the OMV Petrom’s Board of Directors, responsible for the Gas and Electricity activities, Franck Neel said that TPP Brazi has been a reliable producer for the industry and households in Romania for ten years, also being a benchmark for the security of electricity supply, given the fast start-up time, flexibility, and high efficiency. He added that OMV believes that, for Romania’s energy transition, natural gas is the best partner for renewable energy.
TPP Brazi is a combined cycle power plant that uses natural gas to produce electricity for the national grid, using an advanced technology that allows it to stop and restart in a very short period. Due to this technology, the power plant has an important role in providing ancillary system services and balancing the national grid system, compensating with power when renewable sources are intermittent. This advanced technology allows the power plant to operate in high efficiency conditions of 57 %, compared to the average of 30 % recorded by the power plants in Romania.
OMV Petrom invested 530 million euros in the plant, which is the largest private greenfield investment in Romania. The construction of the plant began in 2009, and the commercial production started in August 2012.
The Brazi combined cycle power plant has an installed capacity of 860 MW and has three turbines – two gas turbines, with a capacity of 290 MW each and a steam turbine, with a capacity of 310 MW. Natural gas is used for the first two turbines, and the thermal energy contained in the exhaust gas is then transferred to the two recovery boilers, which produce steam for the third turbine. Through this process, TPP Brazi has the capacity to generate up to 11 % of Romania’s electricity production or to ensure the entire consumption of Bucharest.
