|
Making Czech heating more efficient
EBRD funds to help refurbish district heating plants, cut greenhouse gas emissions
Improved heating services and environmental performance are the goals of a CZK 900 million (€25.4 million) debt facility arranged by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Commerzbank Praha. The 13-year credit – including CZK 600 million (€16.9 million) from the EBRD – is being extended in local currency to Harpen ·R, s.r.o, a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of Germany’s Harpen AG. Commerzbank Praha is co-financing the project with a further CZK 300 million (€8.4 million).
The loans will finance energy-efficiency projects being developed by Harpen ·R, which already has extensive experience leasing, refurbishing and managing small district-heating plants in the Czech Republic based on long-term agreements with municipalities, businesses and residents. Such projects reduce energy consumption, improving heating services while maintaining – and sometimes lowering – customers’ heating bills. The investments should also significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution.
"This is the first EBRD loan to support the district heating sector in the Czech Republic," said Johan Bastin, the Bank’s Business Group Director for Infrastructure.Jacquelin Ligot, Director of the Energy Efficiency Team at the EBRD, added: "The Bank’s financing will help Harpen continue to provide the most cost-effective source of heating and hot water in the cities it serves. This will also improve environmental performance. We couldn’t be more pleased to support a project that enhances private-sector participation in a sector where public management remains the norm."
The project brings together a number of smaller heating sub-projects, thereby improving the heating infrastructure of the country while diversifying the risk for lenders. It also advances private-sector participation in the financing and operation of municipal services in the Czech Republic. Moreover, the EBRD's involvement should serve to reassure the borrower that the current process of liberalisation of the heating sector will not be reversed.
Harpen AG and its subsidiaries lease and operate 180 district heating projects in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Poland. The majority shareholder of Harpen AG is RWE, one of the largest power utilities in Europe.
|
