Uniper Sells Gas Power Plant in Hungary

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Uniper Sells Gas Power Plant in Hungary

Germany’s Uniper SE said Tuesday it had completed the divestment of a natural gas-fired power plant in Gonyu, Hungary, to the local subsidiary of France’s Veolia SA. “The sale of this non-strategic investment is part of the conditions that Uniper must fulfill under EU state aid law”, gas and power utility Uniper said in an […]

Germany’s Uniper SE said Tuesday it had completed the divestment of a natural gas-fired power plant in Gonyu, Hungary, to the local subsidiary of France’s Veolia SA.

“The sale of this non-strategic investment is part of the conditions that Uniper must fulfill under EU state aid law”, gas and power utility Uniper said in an online statement. Uniper had agreed to make divestments for the European Commission to grant clearance for the German government’s bailout of the company in 2022.

Commissioned 2011, the power plant generates up to 430 megawatts, according to Uniper.

The new owner is Veolia Invest Hungary Zrt. Uniper and Veolia had agreed not to disclose the financial terms of the transaction, according to the announcement of the sale agreement February 19, 2024.

Veolia said then the power plant “plays a crucial role in regulating and balancing the Hungarian power grid, thanks to cutting-edge technologies that make its production capacities flexible”.

“In the context of European energy mix evolution towards more renewables and therefore more intermittent production, demand for ancillary services, and in particular electrical flexibility, continues to grow, with a rising need for power grid balancing”, Veolia said in a press release at the time.

“It requires both enhanced electricity interconnection and operators with cutting-edge digital expertise to aggregate the production capacity of several power generation units and provide the grid with flexible energy volumes that can be introduced or withdrawn from the grid as required”.

In another sale aimed toward the fulfillment of the bailout conditions, Uniper announced December 10 the launch of bidding for its 18.26 percent stake in AS Latvijas Gaze, which is involved in natural gas trading and sales to Baltic consumers primarily in Latvia.

In late 2022 the German government took over about 99 percent of Uniper’s shareholding and agreed to a capital injection of EUR 25 billion ($25.8 billion). The state’s takeover from ex-majority owner Fortum Oyj served to prevent Uniper from collapsing from war-induced losses including from the purchase of substitute gas after Russia’s Gazprom PJSC failed to deliver contracted supply from mid-2022, according to online information from Uniper. Gazprom PJSC’s export unit has not responded to a comment request emailed by Rigzone about Uniper’s claim of undelivered gas.

For the bailout to satisfy EU state aid rules, Uniper agreed to several divestments that must be completed by 2026. Besides the Hungarian and Latvian assets, the divestment package included an 84 percent stake in Unipro in Russia, a 20 percent stake in the OPAL pipeline, a 20 percent indirect stake in the BBL pipeline, a hard coal-fired power plant in Germany, Uniper’s German district heating business, part of its power operations in North America, its Middle Eastern marine fuels unit Uniper Energy DMCC and its international helium business, Uniper says on its website.

The German government also committed to cutting its stake to a maximum of 25 percent plus one share by 2028 at the latest, according to a Commission statement December 20, 2022, announcing approval.

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