May 8 (SeeNews) - Romanian hydro power producer Hidroelectrica said on Tuesday it has signed a 4.4 million lei ($1.1 million/ 0.94 million euro) contract for the overhaul of five hydro power plants (HPPs) of 110 kW each belonging to the Ramnicu Valcea hydro-electric substation.
The upgrades will be financed from the company's own sources, Hidroelectrica said in a press release.
"Malaia, Calimanesti, Ionesti, Zavideni and Dragasani stations have been in operation for 35 years and their equipment is physically and morally outdated. Following modernisation works, we will have a new life cycle of at least 30 years for the installations," Hidroelectrica's directorate president Bogdan Badea said, as quoted in the press release.
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The works will be carried out in two stages - the design and preparation of the execution of the modernisation is scheduled to take up to six months, to be followed by the actual execution of the overhaul.
In February, the company launched an international public tender for the rehabilitation of Vidraru HPP. The estimated value of the contract to be awarded amounts to 78.98 million euro ($93.8 million), excluding VAT, to which a maximum of 1.75 million euro can be added. The works will be completed within four years and eight months after the contract award date.
The final date for submission of bids is May 15.
Hidroelectrica operates more than 207 hydro power plants with a combined installed capacity of over 6,432 MW.
In April, Hidroelectrica exited insolvency, which paved the way for a long-awaited listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, seen as the biggest in Romania's history. The initial public offering (IPO) of a 15% stake in Hidroelectrica is expected to raise 1 billion euro.
The government's plans to dual-list a 15% stake in Hidroelectrica on the BVB, and on the London Stock Exchange have been repeatedly delayed as insolvency proceedings were taking longer than expected, despite the company's strong financial recovery.
Hidroelectrica's gross profit jumped by an annual 6% to 256 million euro in the first nine months of 2017.
(1 euro=4.6496 lei)
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