Romanian minister says EdF and Itochu interested in EUR 1 bln pumped hydropower plant project

The companies Itochu from Japan and EdF from France are interested in the Tarniţa-Lăpuşteşti pumped-storage hydropower plant project and are willing to carry out the feasibility study at their own expense and then carry out the design and execution of the plant to the end, announced the minister of energy Sebastian Burduja.

He admitted that the company that manages the state assets in the energy sector, SAPE, failed to find a contractor for the feasibility study of the project one year after it was requested to complete the task.

"These very days, we continued the discussions with the strategic partners from Japan and France, the consortium formed by Itochu-EdF.[...] The two big companies are interested in the project. A large-scale project needs serious, stable, reliable partners who have proven that they know and can implement large projects," the minister wrote on his Facebook page, Economica.net reported.

The Tarniţa-Lăpuşteşti project is located 30 kilometers from Cluj-Napoca, on the Someş River. It was initially designed in 1979 as a 1,000 MW hydropower plant that can operate in reverse mode with pumps in order to store energy.

The need for such projects became more stringent with the development of intermittent green energy generation capacities.

The construction of the plant is estimated at EUR 1 billion.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)