An EIB spokesperson told Gas to Power Journal that the bank’s loan to Elektrociepłownia Stalowa Wola covers an amount up to 50 percent of the total investment costs and there are other undisclosed sources of funding.

The Stalowa Wola CHP plant is currently under construction and is expected to be operational in the second half of 2015. Once operational, it will provide electricity to the grid and heating to Stalowa Wola, a city with 65,800 inhabitants as well as neighbouring smaller towns and local industry,

After a public procurement process, Elektrociepłownia Stalowa Wola selected Spain’s Abener Energia as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm to realise the plant.

Once operational, the new gas-fired CHP plant will help reduce coal consumption at the Stalowa Wola power plant by some 100 000 tons per year, and will help to increase fuel-diversification in the Polish power sector. It will also “improve the security of the internal supply of electricity in Poland and increase competition in the Polish electricity market,” the EIB spokesperson said.

According to the EIB, the overall efficiency of the plant will be at “a level significantly above the industry average…due to the advanced gas-fired combined cycle technology used and simultaneous generation of useful heat.”