French utility Veolia has agreed to buy a 430-megawatt, gas-fired power plant in Hungary from Uniper, the companies said, marking the German group’s latest asset disposal to meet EU conditions imposed as part of its bailout in 2022.
The gas-fired, combined-cycle power plant is in Gonyu, north-west Hungary, and was commissioned in 2011.
No financial details were disclosed for the deal, which marks the third sale from a Uniper received from Brussels in return for approving Berlin’s 13.5 billion euro ($14.5 billion) rescue of the firm during Europe’s energy crisis.
Under the requirements, Uniper must sell 10 assets by the end of 2026, including its German coal-fired plant Datteln as well as an 18% stake in Latvian energy Latvijas Gaze.
Gonyu helps to provide flexible electricity generation capacity, which is crucial as more intermittent renewable capacity comes online and European countries need flexible baseload capacity that can come on or offline quickly to balance their grids, Veolia said.
“This agreement is right in line with our ambitions to develop flexibility capacities, an essential complement to the stability of the European power grid,” said Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia’s chief executive officer.
The purchase agreement was done via Veolia’s Hungarian subsidiary and the transaction is subject to obtaining the necessary authorisations and complying with regulations, the firm added.
Source: Reuters.com