Italy's Enel SpA (ENEL.MI) has won a bid to build a 447 megawatt power plant in Greece, the country's transmission system operator said Thursday.
The license to build the plant is the first issued by the Hellenic Transmission System Operator, or HTSO, under a complex guarantee system aimed at bringing new investment to the Greek power market.
The natural gas fired power plant will be built in the central Greek town of Livadia, by Enelco - a 75% owned subsidiary of the Italian company. The remaining 25% of the company is owned by Prometheus Gas SA, which is equally owned by Russia's OAO Gazprom (GSPBEX.RS) and Greece's Copelouzos Group.
Originally, ENEL was seen as the winning bidder for the competition when it was held early last year. But because of technical questions raised by the European Commission about the competition, no formal announcement was made at the time.
Enel has said it wants to invest between EUR500 million and EUR1 billion in Greece through 2011.