Answering energy demands

Poland energy needs are growing and the Polish Economy Ministry is recognizing a need to keep up with the increasing demand with plans to organize tenders to build gas-fired power plans, which would cover peak-hour electricity demands.

Economy Ministry aide Joanna Strzelec-Lobodzinska told a news briefing that one answer to a growing electricity needs is to build natural-gas fire plans. "The estimates show Poland needs to create 1,500 and 2,000 MW in new capacities to keep up with the growing demand and replace outdated technologies," she told reporters.

Strzelec-Lobodzinska told Dow Jones Newswires that the tenders for the plants will be open to foreign investors and would be announced in the first quarter of 2009, while new capacity could be added two years later.

"It is very possible a number of natural-gas fired plants will be built," she said adding that generators of around 400 megawatts would be preferred as relatively smaller power sources. The smaller generators would sever better to balance supply needs especially when summer peak demand in Warsaw has risen by more than 40 percent since 2002 and is projected to increase another 23 percent by 2015.

In order to keep up with the growing demand, Strzelec-Lobodzinska said that the Polish power system needs 1,500 - 2,000 MW in new capacities to be added each year. This move would restore the safe 15 percent capacity reserve in the power system, which is currently missing.

Gas monopoly PGNiG has shown interest in entering the power sector and according to media reports, the company is in talks with Germany's RWE on building a gas-fired plant in Poland.

Sources: Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires