June 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Varna thermal power plant (TPP) said that it plans to build two steam-gas combined cycle units of 275 MW each to replace decommissioned units - a project worth an estimated 450 million euro ($548.5 million).
The new combined-cycle system is expected to become operational by 2025, TPP Varna said in a statement on Wednesday.
The TPP said that on June 2 it signed a contract for the development of a technical-economic model for the project with three Russian companies - industrial valve products manufacturer Rakityanski Armaturny Zavod, steel pipe manufacturer Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya and power engineering company Atomenergomash.
Each of the new steam-gas units will be equipped with a Siemens SGT5-2000E gas turbine, combined with a steam turbine, as well as the relevant electrical and auxiliary equipment.
Some of the main advantages of the new steam-gas system are lower impact on the environment, high reliability, longer useful life as well as lower operating costs, the TPP noted.
A combined-cycle unit uses a gas turbine to drive an electricity generator, and recovers waste heat from the turbine exhaust to produce steam, which is then fed to a steam turbine to generate supplemental electricity.
Varna TPP currently has three functioning units of 210 MW each using natural gas as their main fuel - Units 4, 5 and 6. Units 1, 2 and 3 became operational in 1968-1969 and were decommissioned in 2017.
In 2018, Czech energy group CEZ sold TPP Varna to Bulgarian logistics company Sigda. Subsequently, Ahmed Dogan, honorary chairman of Bulgaria's Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, acquired a 70% stake in Sigda.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)