BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 13. The new power plant will be another contribution to Europe's energy security, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said during the groundbreaking ceremony held at the Gulustan Palace in Baku for a 1,280-MW thermal power plant, the largest in Azerbaijan's independence period, Trend reports.
"Now begins a new era of the city of Mingachevir as the electricity center of Azerbaijan - in fact, not only Azerbaijan, but also of the entire Caucasus. The station with a capacity of about 1,300 megawatts will certainly strengthen our potential to a great extent.
This will be another contribution to Azerbaijan's energy security, hundreds of new jobs will be created, and thus Azerbaijan will make full use of its capabilities to meet both domestic demand and, at the same time, take greater steps in the field of electric power and natural gas. Because the consumption of conventional fuel in the newly built station is quite low, and this will enable us to save approximately 800 million cubic meters or 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
As there is a great demand for Azerbaijani gas in Europe today, this will also be another contribution to Europe's energy security," President Ilham Aliyev said.