EBRD to lend $70 mln for Azerbaijan power plant upgrade

Interfax
May 27 2004

Baku. (Interfax) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(EBRD) is ready to extend Azerbaijan a $70-million loan to upgrade
the Azerbaijan State District Power Plant, the country’s largest,
a source in the EBRD’s office in Baku told Interfax.

An agreement is planned to be signed at the end of 2004 or the
beginning of 2005, the source said.

The project will include upgrading the power plant’s eight generating
units. Azerbaijan estimates the project will cost $80 million.

The Azerbaijan State District Power Plant is located on the Upper
Karabakh Canal 400 kilometers west of Baku. The plant’s first
generating unit was built in 1981 and the eighth in 1989. The eight
units have a total generating capacity of 2,400 megawatts (300
megawatts each). The plant generates more than half of Azerbaijan’s
electricity.

Azerbaijan has been a member of the EBRD since 1992. The EBRD has
extended loans under government guarantees to Azerbaijan worth $131.79
million and $9.5 million to the private sector to date. The EBRD is
planning to loan Azerbaijan $350 million in the 2004 fiscal year.

Azerbaijan has implemented two projects in the energy sector with
EBRD loans: upgrading the Minyachevir hydropower station for $21
million and building the Yenikend hydropower station for $53 million.