Eesti Energia buys full holding in Valka CHP plant in Latvia
Estonian state-owned energy group Eesti Energia has bought the ten-percent holding in the energy company Enefit Power&Heat Valka previously held by the municipal government of the Latvian border town of Valka and now owns 100 percent of the company which runs a combined heat and power (CHP) plant in town.
Innar Kaasik, board member of the Eesti Energia renewable energy production unit Enefit Taastuvenergia, said that the streamlining of the management of group units as well as the structure within the group, arising from the Eesti Energia strategy revised this summer, was one of the aims of the acquisition.
Kaasik noted that Eesti Energia decided to acquire the stake because the Valka municipal government was interested in selling its minority shares. He added that Enefit Power&Heat Valka is so far the only production enterprise belonging to the Estonian energy group that is situated outside of Estonia.
Eesti Energia acquired 90 percent of the shares in the Latvian company Enefit Power&Heat Valka in January 2011. In 2012, the company set up a biofuel powered CHP station supplying the town of Valka with heat. The CHP plant, which cost 10 million to build, has an electrical output capacity of 2.4 megawatts and a thermal output capacity of eight megawatts.
Upon the completion of the new plant, the old biofuel- and heating oil-powered boilerhouses in Valka were assigned to reserve or left on standby to provide backup during peak consumption periods.
In 2015, the Valka CHP plant produced 14 gigawatt-hours of electricity and 21 gigawatt-hours of heat for sale. During the first 11 months of this year, the plant, which buys the biomass necessary for its operation from wood chip producers situated nearby, has produced 14 GWh of electricity and 20 GWh of heat.
Eesti Energia also owns a similar CHP plant in the Central Estonian town of Paide.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS