The FINANCIAL — Georgian International Energy Corporation (GIEC) has implemented a new project in Vejini, Gurjaani region, Eastern Georgia.
The FINANCIAL — Georgian International Energy Corporation (GIEC) has implemented a new project in Vejini, Gurjaani region, Eastern Georgia.
The first step of the project, rehabilitation of the plant Alazani I, ended recently. As a result, the installed capacity of the plant rose from 4 to 6 Megawatts.Total investment cost of the project is US$ 8 million. US$ 2.3 million was spent on rehabilitating Alazani I. Bank of Georgia financed this project in the amount of US$ 1.6 million under the Energy Efficiency Project of the EBRD.
“Bank of Georgia is participating in the financing of this project,” said Natia Turnava, Director of GIEC. “These are very important projects. Alazani I was an active Hydro power station, but its power was only 4 Megawatts. We increased it up to 6 Megawatts. In winter it may decrease to 5 Megawatts, but this won’t significantly affect the annual amount of power.”
“We examined the potential and location of the channel on this river and found that the potential was bigger compared to the energy we got. Therefore we decided to rehabilitate the plant in order to increase its power. As a result it will generate 40 million KW/hour annually, whereas before it generated only 30 million KW/hour. This is quite a good result.”
Bank of Georgia participated in this project within the framework of the EBRD’s Energy Efficiency Program.. The Bank has financed one third of the whole cost. GIEC covered two thirds of the project’s expenses.
“This project was in the interests of the EBRD. The bank is trying to finance the projects that aim to maximally assimilate water energy,” Turnava explained. “Bank of Georgia acted as a very good partner of ours. EBRD and Bank of Georgia are cooperating and this was one more stimulus for us to work with Bank of Georgia on this project.”
Bank of Georgia and GIEC have cooperated prior to this particular project as well. Therefore the administrative procedures of this project were simple. The cooperation was initiated by GIEC. The Bank knew about the organization, its potential and abilities. So deciding on the financing of the Alazani project didn’t take long.
“Our past cooperation is a guarantee for the Bank that we are good payers. They examined the whole project, its calculations, but all this did not take long. We have very favorable terms for this loan. Bank of Georgia is helping us to cooperate with an international financial organization as well. We try to use all kinds of financial possibilities which are available in both local and foreign markets.”
GEIC currently owns seven plants. The company was founded in 2005. The company bought Alazani I in 2007. The organization is oriented at increasing energy efficiency as much as possible. Therefore the decision was made to rehabilitate the plant and increase its efficiency. The corporation is looking for other such possibilities as well.
GIEC is working on one more project at present. The company is building a thermal power plant in Bolnisi that will work on coal. The plant will be named The 5th Block and will have the capacity of 150 Megawatts. The cost of the project has not been finally calculated yet. 150 Megawatt thermal power plant will cost approximately US$ 200 million.
“We will rehabilitate the boilers which already exist at the plant. We have enough experience for this. We have to buy a new boiler as well, which will run not on gas but on coal,” says Natia Turnava.
The energy produced by the thermal plant is intended for export. GEIC is exporting electro power to Armenia. The corporation is selling electricity in the local market and exporting it in winter due to favorable prices.
The seven plants of GEIC are small and midsized ones. The annual total amount of the energy they generate equals to 300 KW/hour. The company buys energy from the other small plants as well and exports it.
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