South Korea's K Water to build $1-bln hydropower plant in Georgia
TBILISI. Dec 24 (Interfax) - The Georgian Partnership Fund and Korea Water Resources Corporation (K Water) have signed a deal to build the 280 MW Nenskra Hydropower Plant in the Svaneti region of Northwest Georgia at a cost of $1 billion.
Both the cost and the capacity, originally $570 million and 210 MW, were increased during negotiations, Natiya Turnava, deputy CEO of the Partnership Fund, told Interfax. The plant's annual output is expected to be 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours.
The project does not create any standard issues for HPP construction such as the relocation of residents or ecological issues, Turnava said.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) acted as project consultant.
Work on the Nenskra HPP should begin in the spring of 2015 and take until the end of 2020. The plant is being built to plug Georgia's winter electricity shortages and export any surplus.
Work on the HPP on the Nenskra, the biggest tributary of the Inguri River, was supposed to begin back in 2012. China's Sinohydro Group Limited was supposed to build it, but the project was revised and the contract with the Chinese company was severed.