Elektrėnai Power Plant

The Elektrėnai Power Plant or Elektrėnai Complex (Elektrėnų kompleksas) is an 1,055 MW electricity generating station near Elektrėnai, Lithuania, about 50 km west of Lithuania's capital, Vilnius. It is operated by Ignitis gamyba AB, a subsidiary of Ignitis.

History


The plant was built in stages between 1960 and 1972. The Strėva River was dammed to supply it with cooling water, creating the Elektrėnai Reservoir. As of 2008 the plant comprised eight units fired with natural gas, heavy fuel oil, and a bitumen-based fuel known as Orimulsion, briefly imported from Venezuela. It was designed as a base load plant, and generated about 10 TWh per year until 1992. Its operations were then reduced to about 5% of its capacity, since it acted only as a reserve in the Lithuanian power system.

After the shutdown of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in 2009, the plant became the primary source of Lithuania's electrical power. Since the plant does not meet European Union environmental guidelines, a number of improvement projects have been proposed. A flue-gas desulfurization project was completed in September 2008. In December 2007, Economy Ministry Undersecretary Arturas Dainius announced that a new 400-MW combined cycle unit would be built at the site as well. The cost of the new unit was estimated at 252 million euros; 57% of the funding will be supplied by the European Union, 33% by the plant, and the remaining 10% by the National Ignalina Decommissioning Fund. In 2012, a 9th unit was opened, which cost in total 377 million euros. It was built by a Spanish company Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construccion.

The plant also supplies district heating to the town of Elektrėnai, established in 1962, originally to support its workers.