OREANDA-NEWS. May 11, 2010. The EBRD is providing a loan of up to RUB 350 million (approximately EUR8.1 million) to Taganrog Teploenergo, a privately-owned district heating company, to finance company’s investment programme, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

Majority-owned by Centr-Invest Bank, Taganrog Teploenergo is operating in Taganrog, a seaport city in Rostov Oblast in southern Russia. The EBRD holds a minority stake in the company of 25 per cent plus one share.

The project will enable Taganrog Teploenergo to continue its expansion to other districts of the city of Taganrog. The proceeds of the EBRD loan will finance construction of five new state-of-the-art boiler houses, which will replace the obsolete boiler that is currently in use.

The investment will increase the security of heat supply in Taganrog and will improve the quality of district heating services in the city. In addition, the project implementation will result in a 13 per cent reduction in fuel consumption and a seven per cent cut in electricity use, saving 2.6 thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

“Supporting private companies operating in the infrastructure sector is one of the EBRD’s priorities in Russia and we are pleased to continue our collaboration with Teploenergo. The EBRD investment will help the company expand its operations and improve the quality of service to the benefit of Taganrog”, said Bruno Balvanera, Head of Regional Development, Russia, EBRD.

“This project is a continuation of the technical modernization of the district heating in the City of Taganrog. It will be implemented with the support of new energy efficient technologies, reforming the public utility sector through introduction of the long-term tariffs and transparent collection system of payments”, said Vasily Vysokov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Centr-Invest bank JSC.