Hunton & Williams has been engaged by Hrvatska Elektroprivreda of Croatia to advise on an international tender for the design, engineering, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of a new €800 million, 500MW coal-fired power plant at Plomin in Istria, Croatia. The plant will be built adjacent to the Plomin A and B power plants, presently owned and operated by RWE and Hrvatska Elektroprivreda.
“This is the latest among a series of infrastructure projects in Central and Eastern Europe on which we have acted,” saidDr. Kirk Lovrić, London counsel and lead legal advisor for the transaction. “There is an increasing need for new energy infrastructure and we are pleased we can help clients meet this demand.”
Hrvatska Elektroprivreda is the national electricity company of the Republic of Croatia and owns and operates more than 4,000MW of installed generation capacity including 25 hydroelectric plants and eight thermal power plants fired by oil, natural gas and coal. Hrvatska Elektroprivreda aims to build Plomin C to increase its installed capacity in line with Croatian electricity market demand. This will enable it to decommission some existing power plants in Croatia that do not meet the requirements of the Industrial Emissions Directive and other EU standards which will be applicable in Croatia after its entry to the EU in 2013.
The firm’s engagement on the Plomin C transaction adds to the practice’s energy experience in Central and Eastern Europe, where it has also advised Elektroprivreda Republika Srpska on the €500 million Ugljevik coal-fired power project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The firm also advised the Government of Kosovo on the development of a new 600MW lignite-fired power plant, the rehabilitation of an existing 600MW lignite-fired power plant, and the development of an approximately 10 million tonnes per annum lignite mine outside of Pristina, Kosovo. Dr. Lovrić and Partner Ryan Ketchum will be advising Hrvatska Elektroprivreda out of the Hunton & Williams London office.
