A state commission has certified that the documents submitted for the unit meet the requirements and the unit has been built in compliance with the project, Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy), Lithuania’s largest electricity producer, reported on Tuesday.
“Although the official ceremony to mark the launch of the unit is scheduled for 23 October, everything has already been checked as far as the technologies are concerned, and the unit has worked without any disruptions for one month. This fact has also been certified by the state commission,” Lietuvos Energija CEO, Dalius Misiūnas, said in a press release.
The new unit of Lietuvos Elektrinė, which is worth 1.3 billion litas, is the largest project implemented by Lietuvos Energija so far.
Funding for the unit included 168.2 million euros in grant from the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund (IIDSF), a 71-million-euro loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), loans from Lithuania’s commercial banks and funds of Lietuvos Energija.
The new 455 MW unit of Lietuvos Elektrinė was built by Spain's Iberdrola together with its Lithuanian partners. Unit Nine will have an efficiency of more than 58 percent and will be able to meet some 20 to 25 percent of the country's power needs.
A 328-million-euro deal with Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construccion, a subsidiary of Spain’s Iberdrola, was signed in April 2009.
