State coal-fired power plant Maritsa East II and environment minister Dzhevdet Chakarov will sign a EUR 75mn contract with Italy’s technology company Idreco and the Chinese firm Insigma Group for building a desulphurisation plant for units 5 and 6, a note on the website of the ministry reads. The consortium between Idreco and Insigma Group won the order outbidding Poland 's Rafako and Italy 's Alstom Power. The project is valued at a total of EUR 85.6mn and the difference will be financed by own funds of the power producer. EBRD will provide a EUR 34mn loan for the project, ISPA financing will bring additional EUR 36.2mn. Construction works should be completed by 2011. The project will open some 200 temporary and 50 permanent jobs. This is the last phase of the last phase of the overhaul of all production units.

Maritsa East II runs eight generators with total installed capacity of 1,483MW after it completed recent upgrades to one of its units. Recently, it opened a flue gas desulphurization (FGD) plant for units 1 and 2 that will reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 94%. In the beginning of next year, the company will commission the flue gas desulphurization installations of units 3 and 4. The last two units 7 and 8 already have a fully functioning flue gas desulphurization plant with the same air protection characteristics as those for units 1-4. After the end of all modernization works, the state power plant will have production capacity of 1,577MW. It is producing about 17% of the country’s electricity at present and stands as the largest thermo-power plant on the Balkans.