VEC to build Khabarovsk sites for electricity exports to China

Jun 26, 2008 - China Institute - Interfax

KHABAROVSK. June 26 (Interfax) - Vostochnaya Energy Company (VEC) will continue the implementation of energy export projects designed by the Unified Energy System of Russia (UES) on the Khabarovsk territory starting from July 1, a source at the Khabarovsk territorial government told Interfax on Thursday.

The projects include the construction of a steam gas unit with a capacity of 400-500 megawatts in the village of Ilyinka. The unit will partially substitute the first Khabarovsk heating and power plant.

There will be a new thermal power plant in Urgal in the Verkhnaya Bureaya district. The plant, with a capacity of 2,400 to 3,600 megawatts, will be linked to an export power line.

"Specifications of the prospective sites and the period of their construction are spelled out in a quadripartite agreement between the Khabarovsk government, the UES, Vostochnaya Energy Company and the Far Eastern Generation Company. The agreement supplemented the December 2006 document on the investment policy on the Khabarovsk territory," the source said.

The agreement named VEC the operator of the projects. The territorial government pledged to assign land lots and assist the laying of heating pipes from the steam gas unit to Khabarovsk residential areas.

The steam gas unit "is a modern type with a high efficiency coefficient," the source cited Khabarovsk Fuel and Energy Minister Vladimir Slivko as saying. The unit will cut the heating and electricity production costs. It is due to start operation in late 2011.

The Urgal thermal power plant based on the Urgal coal deposit will draw large investments to the territory, the source said. Khabarovsk Governor Viktor Ishayev said many times that it would be profitable to generate electricity in the area of the coal deposit.

The new power plant "will enlarge tax deductions, create jobs, stop exports of raw materials and begin exports of electricity to China," Ishayev said.

The goals comply with earlier agreements between the UES and the state-owned energy company of China, the source said.