Espoo, Finland, 2014-09-29 11:02 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FORTUM CORPORATION PRESS RELEASE 29 September 2014
The third unit at Fortum's Nyagan Power Plant has passed comprehensive and certification tests that precede commissioning. Fortum plans to start the commercial operation of the unit by the end of 2014. Capacity payments under the Russian government's Capacity Supply Agreement (CSA) for 418 megawatts (MW) are scheduled to start as of 1 January 2015.
During the testing period, the unit operated for 72 hours at maximum load. After the comprehensive tests, the power plant began certification tests to confirm the unit's technical parameters. Certification was passed successfully. The unit was thereby finalised 15 months ahead of the CSA-projected schedule. Nyagan 1 has been in commercial operation since 1 April 2013 and Nyagan 2 since 1 December 2013. Construction of the power plant began in 2008.
The Nyagan Power Plant that has now been completed in the oil and gas rich Russian Khanty-Mansiysk Automonous Region in Western Siberia was Fortum’s largest green-field investment project in the 2000's. With a power generation capacity of over 1,260 MW, it is also Russia’s most modern thermal power plant and the country’s biggest combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) facility in decades. The power plant features the most advanced available thermal generation technologies and is unrivaled in efficiency for its class in Russia.
With the Nyagan project successfully completed, Fortum once again demonstrates its commitment to fulfill its extensive 2,500-MW investment program that will have nearly doubled the company’s power generation capacity in Russia once finalised in 2015. Fortum now focuses on the completion of the programme's last two remaining new units that are being built at the Chelyabinsk GRES power plant. The two units will add close to 500 MW's of new power generation capacity and 350 MW's of heat production capacity to support the demand from the local metals and heavy machinery industries in the Urals region.
Fortum Corporation
Corporate Communications
Background information to journalists:
Fortum in Russia
Fortum produces and sells electricity and heat in the developed industrial areas of the Urals and in the oil and gas producing regions of Western Siberia. Electricity is sold on the wholesale market and heat on the local markets. Fortum has approximately 4,200 employees in Russia and has had diverse business relations with the country for more than five decades. Additionally, Fortum has an over 25%-shareholding in the regional territorial generating company TGC-1 operating in north-west Russia.
The Russian operations carry a significant role in Fortum's strategy and the company's goal is to achieve solid earnings growth in the segment. At the end of the second quarter of 2014, the last 12 month (LTM) sales by Fortum’s Russian business were approximately EUR 1.1 billion (~22% of Fortum’s sales) and the LTM's comparable operating profit was EUR 197 million (~15% of Fortum’s comparable operating profit). At the end of June 2014, Russia’s share of Fortum’s net assets was about 25% (EUR 3,870 million, calculated at the currency exchange rates on 30 June 2014).
Fortum
Fortum’s purpose is to create energy that improves life for present and future generations. Catering to the versatile needs of our customers, we generate, distribute and sell electricity and heat, and offer related expert services. Our operations focus on the Nordic and Baltic countries, Russia and Poland. In 2013, Fortum’s sales totalled EUR 6.1 billion and comparable operating profit was EUR 1.6 billion. We employ approximately 8,800 people. Fortum’s shares are traded on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. www.fortum.com