EIB supports Poland's energy network
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending PLN 950 million (approx. EUR 230 million) over 15 years to ENEA S.A., the top company of the ENEA Capital Group, one of the four largest vertically integrated energy groups in Poland. The loan, the Bank's first operation with ENEA, will finance the maintenance, modernisation and extension of the group's electricity networks in the North-West of Poland, managed by its regulated subsidiary ENEA Operator.
The EIB loan will help to implement ENEA's four-year investment programme in energy distribution, comprising some 40 000 independent and geographically dispersed distribution network upgrading schemes a year, including for example the installation of new, enlarged and refurbished assets.
The programme will make possible the connection of some 25 000 new system users per year, contribute to meeting the challenge of the increasing demand for services, improve the reliability of the electricity supply by around 30% and help to reduce energy losses.
Mr Anton Rop, EIB Vice-President responsible for operations in Poland, stated: "I very much welcome the fact that EIB funds are continuing to contribute, now through this new important counterpart, to the modernisation and capacity increase of the Polish energy sector, re-affirming the Bank's crucial importance to the successful economic development of the country."
The EIB supports renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy infrastructure modernisation projects in Poland while at the same time recognising important energy security considerations. It has already provided EUR 212 million in 2012 for the upgrading and extension of Polish electricity grids. Including the current operation, the EIB has granted loans to Poland's energy sector amounting to some EUR 2 billion.
