The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is helping to modernise Kazakhstan's energy generation network with a senior secured loan of 3.1 billion Kazakh tenge (equivalent to €15 million) to AES Sogrinsk CHP power plant, Financial reported.
The 10-year loan with a two-year grace period will be used to co-fund the plant's 5.5 billion Kazakh tenge-worth rehabilitation programme, including the purchase and installation of modern energy efficient equipment. The loan will be extended in Kazakh tenge, in line with the EBRD's focus on increasing local currency lending in its countries of operations.
"AES Sogrinsk CHP is a private power generation company with a majority ownership by AES Corporation (USA), serving residential and industrial customers in eastern Kazakhstan. It owns and operates a 60MW coal-fired co-generation power plant and adjacent heating network, playing a vital role in the country's thermal power generation and in security of supply in one of Kazakhstan's most heavily industrialised and electricity-deficient regions," EBRD said.
The EBRD's loan will be used to co-finance AES Sogrinsk's investment programme that will enable the plant to replace some of its low efficiency and high carbon intensity units like turbine-generator, boilers and back-up systems. In addition, the plant will be able to carry out environmental and energy efficiency measures.
As part of the programme, the new energy efficiency investments will lead to a two-fold increase in electricity production from 250 GWh to nearly 590 GWh a year with net electricity efficiency improvement from 18 per cent to 25 per cent. Moreover, the plant expects to significantly reduce its green-house gas emissions by around 100,000 tonnes annually in the long run.
Since the beginning of its operations in Kazakhstan, the EBRD has invested over €2.8 billion in over 130 projects in various sectors of the Kazakh economy, mobilising additional investments in excess of about €7 billion, with 65 per cent of the projects' being investments into the development of the country's private sector.