Two power stations in North to be sold to Czech billionaire

One of Northern Ireland’s largest electricity generators has agreed to sell two power stations in the North to a company controlled by a Czech billionaire.

The AES Corporation, which owns and operates both Ballylumford and Kilroot Power Stations in Co Antrim, is selling both plants to EP UK Investments Ltd (EP UKI), which is part of Daniel Kretinsky's EPH Group.

The Arlington-headquartered, Fortune 500 global power company said it expected to net $211 million from the transaction.

The Prague-based EPP group has operations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, the UK, Hungary and Poland, and employs about 25,000 people.

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AES said the sale was part of a strategy to exit energy markets in the UK and Jordan.

Under the terms of the deal, AES has agreed to sell two thermal power plants in Jordan and another under construction to Nebras Power Investment Management BV, and two thermal power plants and one operational energy storage facility in Northern Ireland to EP UK Investments Ltd, which is part of the EPH Group.

‘Growth efforts’

Andrés Gluski, AES president and chief executive officer, said: “We are proud of our many years of successful operations in Jordan and the UK. ” In line with our business strategy, we continue to reduce the number of countries in which we operate and focus our growth efforts in fewer markets, and especially in renewables, energy storage and LNG.”

The sale of its Northern Ireland power plants will be subject to approval by the European Commission.

Kilroot has a generating capacity of 560MW from dual coal-and-oil-fuelled generators and 142MW from additional gas turbines, while Ballylumford is a gas-fired plant with a generating capacity of 1,017MW.

AES expects the sale of both Northern Ireland plants to close later this year. Jan Špringl, vice-chairman of EPPE, said the group would acquire all of the AES Northern Ireland operations including assets, systems and key management and staff.

He said the acquisition of AES’s portfolio was an “important step in our strategy of increasing our generation capacity across Europe”. “This potential acquisition perfectly fits to the strategy of EPH to further expand its presence in the European power-generation sector,” he said.