A consortium led by Turkey’s Unit and Finance Engineering of Bulgaria in partnership with Canada’s Hatch Acres and the UK’s Mott McDonald outbid Greece’s SENCAP offer for FYROM 210-MW heavy oil-fired thermal plant, TEC Negotino.
The winning consortium offered 61.7 million euros, less than SENCAP’s bid of 68 million euros but “a superior business and investment plan,” was submitted according to sources of FYROM’s Ministry of the Economy cited by Platts.
SENCAP is an affiliated company of Public Power Corp and ContourGlobal, a U.S-based energy fund.
The winning bidder has committed to build 640-MW of new capacity at the site of the existing plant as against 500-MW of capacity proposed by the SENCAP, the source said.
The Turkish-Bulgarian led group’s bid entails the development of a 500-MW coal-fired thermal power plant, with coal to be imported via rail fromThessaloniki, as well as a 140-MW unit, the sources said.
According tot other sources , the new oweners have agreed to keep the xisiting plant in cold reserve for four years, to be called when needed by system operator MEPSO, until the new unit is commissioned. A sales contract is expected to be finalized early next month after a deadline for complaints expires.
FYROM realunched a tender for the sale of TEC Negotino last December, requesting bids of at last 38 million euros by this February. It received pre-qualifying bids from 18 companies and consortia, from which 15 including Italy’s Enel, Germany’s RWE Power and Siemens, Austria’s Verbund and EVN and Belgium’s Electrabel were shortlisted in March to submit final bids.