Dalkia eyes electricity production

The Lithuanian company Litesko, a subsidiary of the French heating company Dalkia, is planning investments in the country's electricity production market, which is expected to grow rapidly following the shutdown of the Ignalina nuclear power plant.

Litesko's director of commerce, Romualdas Pocius, said the company is planning to invest about 45 million litas ($11.25 million) in a 15 megawatt thermal power plant in the southern town of Alytus.

The plant will be mainly used by Alytus Textile.

"It is natural that Litesko is investing in the electricity sector," said Romualdas Skema, deputy director of the Lithuanian Energy Institute. "Combined thermal power plants of this type are widely used in Western countries and the demand for such facilities in Lithuania will rise with the closure of Ignalina."

Roughly 80 percent of Lithuania's electricity is currently supplied by Ignalina.

The Lithuanian government has agreed to close the first of Ignalina's two reactors by 2005. The European Union is pressuring the country to shut down the second reactor by 2009.

Litesko has invested about 41 million litas in heating projects in seven Lithuanian towns in the last two years.

Pocius said the company would invest another 18.3 million litas in heating systems in Telsiai and Palanga later this year.

Earlier this year Dalkia, Europe's largest private heating system operator, signed a deal with the city of Vilnius to lease and modernize the city's heating system.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Rubikon Apskaitos Sistemos, a local company, are Litesko's other two shareholders.