En+ and EDB Agree To Pursue Energy Partnership

En+ Group and Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) agreed on a partnership to pursue potential projects in the electric power industry. Artem Volynets, CEO of En+ Group, and Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the EDB, signed a memorandum of cooperation at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The EDB will consider financing En+ Group's power projects to be located in the Eurasian Economic Community through either lending, or equity participation.

The first project to be considered will be an extra-high-voltage power bridge between Siberia and Central Russia, which will also be able to connect to the power system of Northern Kazakhstan. The bridge will be able to supply 3 GW to 7 GW of cheap electricity from hydropower plants of the Angara-Yenisei cascade and coal-fired power plants of the Kansk-Achinsk and Ekibastuz coal basins to Central Russia, where both power production costs and electricity sales price are much higher. The project will ease the load on railroads as less fossil fuel will be needed to be transported to the power plants of the Urals and Central Russia. The power bridge will have a potential to become an integral part of infrastructure for the Eurasian Economic Community of Russia, Byelorussia and Kazakhstan.

The infrastructure of the Itat - Ekibastuz - Chelyabinsk power bridge (1,900 km, 1,150 kV, construction began in the late 1980s, and was halted as the Soviet Union collapsed) could be the basis of the project. The parties now involved in the project will consider other routes for the proposed power bridge, as well.

En+ Group and the EDB will create a joint working group to conduct research into the project.

In November 2011, an intergovernmental committee of Russia and Kazakhstan approved conducting a comprehensive research into the strengthening ties between energy systems of the countries.
Artem Volynets commented: "The development of cross-border electricity supply will largely shape the future of the global electric power industry enabling nations to use power resources more efficiently, raise the reliability of power supply and reduce impact on the environment. The project to build a power bridge between Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Russia will be the first of its kind in the Eurasian Economic Community - and we are happy to have a partnership with the European Development Bank for it".

The EDB Chairman Igor Finogenov said: "The EBD member-states have their attention focused on building interregional and cross-border power bridges. I have no doubt that our cooperation with En+ Group, one of Russia's power industry and infrastructure leaders, will help implement this kind of long-term investment project aimed at providing sustainable development of the Community's member-states and their deeper economic integration".