Austria's EVN, Bulgaria's NEK Team Up for Gorna Arda Hydro Power Project

SOFIA (Bulgaria), July 20 (SeeNews) – Bulgarian electricity grid operator NEK said on Wednesday it wrapped up a deal with Austrian utility EVN to team up and get back on track the long-delayed construction of a chain of hydro power plants in the Balkan country.

NEK and EVN Austria became official partners in a project for the design, implementation and construction of the Gorna Arda hydro power project, following EVN’s acquisition of Turkey's Construction Contracting Group (CCG) 30% stake in the hydro power venture, the Bulgarian company said in a statement.

In 1999, NEK and Ceylan Holding formed a 69.91/30.1 joint venture to build the three hydro power plants. The project was due to kick off in the autumn of 1999 but construction works never began as the bank that was to finance the Turkish part of the deal filed for insolvency.

The initial agreement between NEK and EVN for the implementation of the hydro complex on the Gorna Arda river in southern Bulgaria, close to the border with Turkey, was signed last July.

Under a deal signed in May 2009 with NEK's parent, the state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding, the Austrian consortium undertook to invest 600 million euro ($434.6 million) in the Gorna Arda project.

($= 0.706 euro)

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