The Turceni Power Station is situated in

Gorj County Gorj County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Oltenia, with its capital city at Târgu Jiu. ''Gorj'' comes from the Slavic ''Gor(no)-'' Jiu (“upper Jiu”), in contrast with Dolj (“lower Jiu”). Demographics In 2011, the county had a ...

(South-Western

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

), on the banks of the

Jiu River The Jiu (; hu, Zsil ; german: Schil or Schiel; la, Rabon) is a river in southern Romania. It is formed near Petroșani by the confluence of headwaters Jiul de Vest and Jiul de Est. It flows southward through the Romanian counties Hunedoara, ...

, halfway between the cities of

Craiova ) , official_name = Craiova , image_skyline = , image_caption = From left: Dolj County Prefecture • Constantin Mihail Palace • Bibescu Manor House • Carol I National College • Museum of Oltenia • University of Craiova , i ...

and

Târgu Jiu Târgu Jiu () is the capital of Gorj County in the Oltenia region of Romania. It is situated on the Southern Sub-Carpathians, on the banks of the river Jiu. Eight localities are administered by the city: Bârsești, Drăgoieni, Iezureni, Polat ...

. It is Romania's largest electricity producer and one of the largest

thermal power plant A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a ...

s in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

, having 4 units of 330 MW net each. But only 2 units are operational and 2 units, with the other 2 being mothballed thus totalling a capacity of 1230 MW. An eighth unit was not completed, and in fact was dismantled. Unit 6, was refurbished and mothballed awaiting modernization. The power plant is expected to decommision all remaining units by 203

The power station uses coal from the

Jilț Coal Mine Jilț Coal Mine is an open-pit mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Mătăsari, Gorj County. The legal entity managing the Jilț mine is the National Company of Lignite Oltenia which was set up in 1997. The exploitation ha ...

and the Tehomir underground mine. The power plant has four smokestacks, each one tall.

Background

The Turceni power plant is sponsored by Complexul Energetic Oltenia. The project envisaged eight units of 309 MW net each, but that was increased to 330 MW. The first seven units entered service from 1978 to 1987. The eighth unit was not commissioned and later dismantled. Unit 2 was later decommissioned, and unit 6 was refurbished and mothballed. Unit 4 and 5 were refurbished afterwards. The specific coal that the power plant uses is lignite, a coal which is not as environmentally sustainable as other types of coal due to its high carbon emissions. So far, there are 2 lignite mines in Romania which supply the resources for the units.

Design and specification

Each unit is composed of a boiler, a turbine and a generator. The

Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...

-licensed boiler, of the tower forced circulation type and intermediate overheating is rated at 1,035 t steam per hour. Slag and ash are hydraulically removed. The boiler temperature output is at . The steam turbine drives a synchronous hydrogen cooled Alsthom/ ABB licensed generator, which delivers 309 MW net, 330 MW gross power. Cooling water is provided by the

and condenser cooling is delivered by 7 × natural draft cooling towers in countercurrent. The power plant is required to have some regulations on their sulfur emissions, so the project may be financed by a yen-based official development assistance loan from the

Japan Bank for International Cooperation The , JBIC, is a Japanese public financial institution and export credit agency that was created on October 1, 1999, through the merger of the Japan Export-Import Bank (JEXIM) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF). JBIC became the in ...

(JBIC) to install flue gas desulfurization units on the power plants to remove around 95% of SO2.

Operations

The plant supply is connected by 6 × 110 kV lines and output goes to 4 × 400 kV lines through 24 × 400 kV transformers.

Production

Starting 2012, production data is provided by Autorităţii Naţionale de Reglementare în domeniul Energiei (National Regulatory Authority for Energy) as part of S.C. Complexul Energetic Oltenia S.A. generation, together with the Rovinari, Ișalnița and

plants.

Costs and Financing

The rehabilitation of Unit 6 will cost approximately EUR 266 million, and is being financed by the

EBRD The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially focus ...

. Initially, the EBRD offered a loan of EUR 150 million in 2008–2009. After the rehabilitation and start of the project, the EBRD will provide about EUR 200 million using an A/B loan structure towards the Turceni project with the hopes of improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, decreasing pollution, and implementing modern technology.

Controversies

There are many controversies surrounding the project and whether the European Bank for Research and Development (

) should finance the rehabilitation of this project. In 2009, the Health and Environment Alliance concluded that the Turceni power plant was considered the second most polluting industrial facility in all of Europe. The gross amount of primary energy consumption in Romania has also decreased significantly over the last 10 years, with an average annual decrease of around 5.66%. This drastic decrease stirs up controversy on whether or not the plant is worth being financed by the EBRD. The lack of transparency and regulatory precautions are another reason why the project has many naysayers. Since Unit 6 had already existed before its closure and now its rehabilitation, an

Environmental Impact Assessment Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...

(EIA) was not mandatory. An EIA is a key component in properly addressing potential environmental consequences of a project, and not having on for this grand power plant has made environmental NGOs and other members of the public uneasy. There have also been alleged cases of money laundering, suspicious payments, and bribery. The harmful effects caused on the surrounding environment has been a topic of controversy as well. The continuation of building the unit and furthering the project will cause large amounts of deforestation, as mines will have to be enlarged to provide extra supplies of energy. These reasons have brought organizations such as Greenpeace Romania and CEE Bankwatch Network to verbally protest against the sponsors and the EBRD. The Turceni Power Plant has already negatively impacted the local Romanians and the environment; in 2013, the Oltenia Energy Complex in Turceni was responsible for the accidental spillage of coal ash. This accident spread to approximately 10 households and 15 hectares of agricultural lands. Many months after the spillage, these villagers were still facing the negative benefits of the spillage, as their houses and surrounding areas were not cleaned up. This incident caused a deep distrust and further controversy towards the rehabilitation of the power plant.

References

External links

Official site
Coal-fired power stations in Romania 1978 establishments in Romania {{Romania-struct-stub