Business news

POSTAVY DISTICT, 31 July (BelTA) – Belarus and China plan to construct energy facilities in third countries together, Belarusian Energy Minister Vladimir Potupchik told the media following the inauguration ceremony of the electrical substation in Postavy District on 31 July, BelTA has learned.

“We have used over $2 billion to build facilities of the Belarusian national power grid together with Chinese partners. We understand each other very well. We are now conducting negotiations to branch out into third countries together and build energy facilities throughout the world. We are set to discuss a project to build overhead power lines in an African country,” the minister said.

The Postavy substation site lies on the border between Braslav District and Postavy District. This is one of the key facilities of the project to connect the Belarusian nuclear power plant to the national power grid. The high-technology 330kV substation is expected to enable interstate power transmission between Belarus and Lithuania via 330kV overhead power lines.

The Postavy electrical substation was built as part of the project to deliver electricity from the Belarusian nuclear power plant to the rest of the national power grid. It is but one of the 23 startup facilities. Some of them have been commissioned already. All the work will be completed in 2018. The work is being done in Vitebsk Oblast, Minsk Oblast, and Grodno Oblast. The Grodno Oblast electrical company Grodnoenergo is the customer while the NCPE is the general contractor. A large number of Belarusian subcontractors are involved. As much as 95% of the cost is covered by a preferential loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.