Rosatom said on 7 July that it is open to dialogue with potential investors in the Baltic NPP construction project. “The market interest of potential investors in the project today speaks of the prospects for high demand from industry and the population for a stable source of electricity with a predictable cost per kilowatt-hour,” Rosatom noted.
Earlier it was reported that the Polish private energy company ZE PAK confirmed a potential interest in investing in the completion of the construction of a NPP in the Kaliningrad region, in face of the abandonment of coal in the energy sector and the search for clean energy sources, including nuclear. According to unofficial data from the analytical portal Polityka Insight, the potential partner of the Polish side may be the Hungarian energy company MVM, the largest energy producer in Hungary and the owner of the Paks NPP. Rosatom noted that the Generation 3+ Baltic NPP is a promising regional energy project that will help meet the demand for a basic source of electricity without CO2 emissions, and, as a result, implement the EU's plans to decarbonise the economy.
The Baltic nuclear plant project originally involved the construction of two VVER reactors with a capacity of at least 1170MWe each, intended for commissioning in 2016 and 2018. It was expected that the power produced by the plant would be exported to the surrounding region. However, in 2013, construction of the station was suspended when neighbouring European states made it clear that they would not buy the electricity. Rosatom then suspended the project to review its technical features, including the possibility of building small reactors at the site.
Russia’s nuclear utility Rosenergoatom (part of Rosatom) in 2019 suspended the unfinished construction of the plant for a period of five years and proposed to spend almost RUB465 million ($7.37m) for this purpose. Although the project was suspended, it was not abandoned. Equipment manufacture under existing contracts continued, and the equipment is being stored in 10 special warehouses on the construction site. The site drainage system is already in place.
Rosatom has continued negotiations with European companies on the possibility of power exports; the project is being refocused on the plant's operation within the united grid of the Baltics and North-West Russia.
