Sep 04 - Power Generation - 1st Half 04

In the first half of 2004, electricity production sold amounted to 6.08 terawatthour, with an increase of 3.57 terawatthour over the first half of 2003, up 142.2%, due essentially to the start-up of three generating units at the Ferrera Erbognone plant (in October 2003, in February 2004 and June 2004, respectively) for a total of 2.52 terawatthour, and in March 2004 of the first 390 megawatt generation unit at Ravenna (up 1.07 terawatthour).

A total of 1.56 gigawatthour of purchased electricity were resold to eligible customers, with a decline of 0.09 terawatthour, down 5.6%. Sales of steam amounted to 4,931,000 tonnes, increasing by 301,000 tonnes, up 6.5%, due to the coming onstream of new generation units at Ferrera Erbognone and Ravenna.

On May 14, 2004 the combined-cycle thermoelectric power plant in Ferrera Erbognone was inaugurated. This is the first plant built in Italy after the opening of the Italian electric market. The power plant has a capacity of 1,030 megawatt and will produce about 7 terawatthour/year of electricity and 1 terawatthour/year of thermal energy (steam) for industrial use. The plant is made up of three units, two of which with 390 megawatt and one with 250 megawatt capacity. The plant will be mainly fed by natural gas, but it will also use gasified residues from EniÕs nearby Sannazzaro refinery (tar from visbreaking). The expenditure required for the power plant construction amounted to euro 550 million plus euro 170 million for the gasification plant under construction.