Hydro Tarniţa SA, the company responsible for building Tarnița hydroelectric pumped storage plant in the northwest of Romania, has pre-qualified three Chinese consortia to realize the 1,000 MW installed capacity energy unit.

According to the project company, the three consortia are made up of China Gezhouba Group Company Limited and Wu Lingpower Corporation Limited, China Huadian Engineering and Guizhou Hydropower Development, Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower and Hydrolancang International Energy. The next step involves the negotiation of preliminary non-binding bids for selection of investors, say representatives of Hydro Tarniţa.

“Depending on the results, Hidro Tarniţa SA, under the coordination of Negotiation and Implementation Committee, will develop the final Terms of Reference, a document that will contain all the elements and conditions of the final and binding offer, which pre-qualified investors will be invited to submit. After completing the last stage – the conduct of the tender offer in a sealed envelope, an investor will be named as winner, and will sign all necessary documents to be a part of Hidro Tarniţa shareholding, for creating, implementing and operating CHEAP Tarniţa – Lăpuşteşti project”, the company project announced.

“Today marks a new stage in completing an objective of strategic value for Romania’s energy security. There is a great need to build energy projects in the national system to ensure its balance. Given that the EU encourages and promotes the use of green energy, the pumped hydro energy storage plant at Tarniţa becomes very important because in SEN operation because it serves to compensate for entries in the system – less predictable, of wind, solar or hydro sources”, said Bogdan Badea, State Secretary in the Ministry of Energy.