Finnish Fortum sells coal-fired Russian plant

Finnish utility Fortum has agreed to sell its Argayash coal-fired combined heat and power plant (CHP) in Russia to local firm Rusatom Smart utilities as it moves to net-zero carbon by 2050, it said July 8. The plant has a heat production capacity of 824 MW and power generation capacity of 256 MW.

Fortum said the price was confidential but the plant made only a minor contribution to its earnings, suggesting that it was not an important part of its financial plan. It has already sold a number of CHP plants this year following its takeover of German energy giant Uniper.

The plant supplies power and steam to local industry and heat to  some 85,000 residents in the towns of Ozersk and Novogorny in the Chelyabinsk region in the Urals. The transaction is expected to be closed in the third quarter of 2021.

“This step, together with the transition to gas at the Chelyabinsk CHP-2, will allow the Russia division to discontinue its use of coal by the end of 2022 and reduce annual CO2 emissions by approximately 2mn metric tons,” said the company's Russian head, Alexander Chuvaev.