Poland's Enea borrows EUR 530m for renewables ops, grid upgrade

Polish state-run utility Enea said on Friday it has agreed with a syndicate of banks PLN 2.5 billion (USD 577m/EUR 531m) in five-year loans to finance renewable energy operations and to upgrade its distribution network.

The lenders include local PKO Bank Polski, BGK, Bank Pekao, Alior Bank and Bank of China (Europe).

The debt consists of a term loan of up to PLN 1.5 billion and a revolving loan of up of to PLN 1 billion. The interest rate will be variable with a margin determined by the debt to EBITDA ratio, while for the term loan, it will also reckon with sustainable development indicators, such as CO2 emissions.

The funds under the term loan will be allocated for the extension and modernisation of Enea's distribution network and the acquisition and development of renewable energy sources, the company explained.

The revolving loan will finance its current operations, excluding the purchase of or works on coal-fired plants or hard coal mining and trading.

Currently, Enea is working on a grid infrastructure project in Poznan to ensure the smooth flow of renewable energy. It is also developing a 6.5-MW photovoltaic (PV) installation in Krzecin while in December it put on stream PV farms a total of 5 MW in Lubno.

Enea's strategy foresees investing PLN 14 billion between 2023 and 2042 on projects in offshore and onshore wind, PV facilities as well as energy storage, the company said a year earlier. It plans to increase its installed renewable energy capacity by 1.5 GW by 2030 and by another 2 GW by 2040 and achieve climate neutrality in 2050.

Enea currently has 6.3 GW of total installed power generation capacity, of which 443 MW comes from renewable energy sources, according to information on its website.

(PLN 10 = USD 2.31/EUR 2.12)

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