The Board
of Directors of Gazprom said on August 30 that the Russian gas giant is working
to develop an updated power generation strategy for 2018–2027, which will take
into account the need for further modernisation of the existing generating
capacities and for continued synergy between the gas and power businesses.
The Board
reviewed the Group’s current power generation strategy, noting that Gazprom’s
plants generate about 16% of all electric power in Russia’s Unified Energy
System and use primarily gas provided by Gazprom.
“The Group holds the top positions in the
Moscow Region’s heat supply market – the world’s largest – and ensures the
operation of the entire value chain from gas production to power and heat generation
to consumer supplies,” Gazprom said in a press release.
Gazprom
said the company considers its obligations for facility construction under
capacity supply agreements (CSAs), which it assumed when entering the power
business, nearly fulfilled. Out of about 9 GW of the planned capacities, highly
efficient power units with a total capacity of 8.5 GW are already operational.
Some of them are innovative, such as the combined cycle gas turbine unit
CCGT-800 at the Kirishi SDPP and the coal-fired power unit STU-330 at the
Novocherkassk SDPP. The total investments in CSA-based projects exceeded 450
billion rubles.
Gazpom is
currently building its last CSA-based generating facility – the Grozny thermal
power plant with a capacity of 360 MW. The facility is expected to come online
in 2018.
In addition
to constructing new generating facilities, Gazprom decommissions capacities
that are no longer useful, which helps, inter alia, boost fuel efficiency,
bolster competitiveness in the electricity markets, and reduce emissions. In
2007–2016, obsolete generating facilities with a total capacity of 3.6 GW were
decommissioned.
Gazprom
said the company’s power companies show stable growth coupled with declining
debt load. In 2016, their aggregate revenue under the Russian Accounting
Standards tripled compared to 2007, amounting to around 530 billion rubles. In
the same period, their EBITDA increased more than fivefold to 80 billion
rubles.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/gazprom-develops-power-generation-strategy-2018-2027/