Russia's state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom has begun the construction of the Baltiyskaya nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region.
The plant will be located in the Neman district of the Kaliningrad region. The electric power capacity of its two units will be 2,300 megawatts. The construction of the first and second units will be completed in 2016 and in 2018 respectively. The launch of the Baltiyskaya plant will turn Russia's western enclave which is now having problems with energy supplies into an energy exporter. The problem of energy supplies in the region emerged after Lithuania had to shut down its Ignalina nuclear power plant by the request of the EU, General Director of the National Energy Security Foundation Konstantin Simonov says:
"Now we have to supply electric energy to Kaliningrad via Belarus. We regret to say that our neighbors are trying to hike transit tariffs 5 times. That is why it was decided to build a nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region to solve the regional energy problem and to have an option to export energy too. For example to Lithuania where electricity price increased after the shutdown of the Ignalina plant. So no matter how you look at it, the project is promising".
The Baltiyskaya nuclear power plant may become the first nuclear power plant in Russia which construction will be invested both from state and private funds including foreign investments. The Baltic states, Poland, Sweden, Germany are electric energy importers. All this countries have energy companies which are not only interested in energy imports but also would like to be among the shareholders of energy generating facilities. That is why the Russian government decided to provide opportunity both to Russian and foreign private companies to invest into the national nuclear sector.
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