Work starts on €120 million Zagreb power plant

Italian contractor FATA has started construction work on a new gas-fired combined cycle power plant (CCPP) unit in the Croatian capital Zagreb.

The CCPP unit, being built out under the auspices of Croatia’s state-owned power company Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP), will have a power output of 150MW and heat output of 114MW and is expected to be completed by 2022.

According to HEP, the project, valued at €120.7 million, represents its largest investment in new generation facilities in a decade. It was financed by loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), with guarantees from the European Fund for Strategic Investments.

HEP said the new unit is expected to reduce gas consumption by 25% and CO2 emissions by 150,000 tonnes per year, compared with its older counterpart, Unit A.

Other environmental benefits of the new unit include a 95% reduction in the volume of SO2 (sulfur dioxide), a 57% reduction in NOx (nitrogen oxides), and an 84% reduction in particulate emissions.

The unit is expected to produce 675GWh of electricity a year, as well as450 GWh of thermal energy, to be used by Zagreb’s district heating system.