Elektrėnai Power Plant

The Elektrėnai Power Plant or Lithuania Power Plant ( _lt. Lietuvos elektrinė) is an 1,800-MW electrical generating station near Elektrėnai, Lithuania, about 50 kilometers west of Lithuania's capital, Vilnius.

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, 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, scheduled for 2009, the plant will become 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. 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. [cite web|title=EU grants EUR 50 mln for upgrading of Lithuanian Power Plant|url=http://www.euro.lt/en/news/lithuanias-membership-in-the-eu/news/2323/|publisher=Lithuania in the European Union|date=2007-12-20|accessdate=2008-04-29]

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

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.ebrd.com/projects/eias/35335e.pdf] European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - Executive Summary of Enviromental Impact Assessment - Environmental and Related Technical Upgrading of Lithuanian Power Plant