GEK Terna Expands in Romania With €144.6 Million High-Voltage Energy Project

GEK Terna enters Romanian grid infrastructure

Greek infrastructure group GEK Terna is expanding its Romanian operations with a €144.6 million high-voltage project for PPC Renewables, Economedia reported. The EPC Nadab HV project will provide the infrastructure required to connect a large photovoltaic development in western Romania to the national power system.

The work will be carried out around Chișineu-Criș and Nadab in Arad County. The contract was signed in August and will be delivered by GEK Terna under an engineering, procurement and construction model. The company will be responsible for design, civil works, equipment procurement and transport, installation and commissioning.

Substations and underground lines define the scope

The project includes two main 400/110 kV electrical substations equipped with gas-insulated switchgear, or GIS. GEK Terna will also construct two underground 400 kV power lines and extend the transmission system operator’s existing outdoor 400 kV substation.

The source did not provide the photovoltaic plant’s generation capacity or a completion date for the grid works. The absence of a disclosed delivery timetable limits an assessment of when the infrastructure could begin supporting additional solar output. However, the turnkey format places responsibility for the main construction and commissioning stages with one contractor, reducing the number of interfaces PPC Renewables must coordinate.

The contract also gives GEK Terna a position in Romania’s electricity transmission infrastructure, adding a new activity to its existing presence in power generation assets. Earlier this year, the group acquired a photovoltaic park with storage from Renovatio. Located in Satu Mare, the facility has 100 MW of installed generation capacity and 99 MW of storage capacity.

Romanian portfolio approaches €1 billion in disclosed contracts

Energy is becoming a second major pillar of GEK Terna’s Romanian business alongside rail infrastructure. At the end of July, construction subsidiary Terna signed an approximately €380 million contract with national railway company CFR for the 44-kilometre Filiași–Igiroasa section, Lot 2. The work will be performed by the TrackWorks consortium, in which Terna holds 74% and Alstom Romania owns 26%.

That award followed an approximately €410 million contract signed at the end of March for the Craiova–Filiași section, Lot 1, where Terna has a 69% consortium interest. Together, the two rail contracts are worth about €790 million and cover approximately 83 kilometres of the Craiova–Drobeta Turnu Severin–Caransebeș line. Adding the initial value of the Nadab energy contract brings the disclosed value of these three awards to about €934.6 million, although GEK Terna’s economic share differs because the rail projects are being delivered through consortia.

After modernisation, the railway will accommodate passenger trains travelling at up to 160 km/h and freight trains at up to 120 km/h, including freight trains as long as 740 metres. GEK Terna is also examining concession tenders promoted or planned by Romanian authorities, according to group chairman and CEO George Peristeris, although no specific concession project has been announced. The energy contract therefore broadens the group’s exposure to Romania’s public and private infrastructure investment cycle while establishing credentials in the grid connections required by new renewable generation.