November 14 (SeeNews) - Romania's top oil and gas group, OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP], said on Tuesday that its Brazi power plant is currently available at 100% of its 860 MW capacity.
"On 13 November, starting 17:00 PM, the second generation unit became available after the replacement of the damaged transformer. At maximum capacity, the Brazi power plant can cover up to 10% of Romania’s average hourly electricity consumption," OMV Petrom said in a press release.
Since the end of September 2016, OMV Petrom has faced malfunctions at two transformers in Brazi. Between October 2016 and April 2017, the power plant functioned at 50% of its capacity, and between April and June 2017, it was completely idled.
At the beginning of July this year, one of the transformers was replaced and since then the plant has operated at 50% of its capacity.
The Brazi power plant is located in Prahova county, in southern Romania. It is the largest private greenfield project for electricity generation in Romania. Brazi started operating in 2011, following a 530 million euro ($601 million) investment by OMV Petrom.
With two gas turbines, two heat recovery boilers and a steam turbine, the power plant has a capacity of 860 MW and an increased designed efficiency of approximately 57% comparing with the average of 30% of units in Romania with similar capacities.
OMV hold a 51.01% stake in OMV Petrom shares, the Romanian state, via the energy ministry owns 20.64%, Fondul Proprietatea holds 9.9985% interest, and 18.35% is in free float on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange.
Shares of blue chip OMV Petrom traded 0.17% lower at 2885 lei at 1212 CET on the Bucharest Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
($=0.8584 euro)