Funding approved for Europe's largest pump storage hydroelectric plant The Ukrainian operator of hydroelectric power plants,

State Company "Ukrhydroene rgo," will take a credit of 1.5 billion USD fromOshchadbank for completion of the first stage of the Dniester Pumped Storage Power Plant. According to the Minist ry of Energy and Coal Industry, the 712 million UAH loan has extended for 10 yea rs under state guarantee. According to Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Eduard Stavisky, the loan will help complete construction of the first stage of the Dniester hydroelectric pow er plant on time - by 2015. "We are already in the final part of completion of the first phase of constructi on of the Dniester Pumped Storage Plant (PSP), which will be the largest pumped storage hydroelectric plant in Europe and the sixth in the world.Commissioning of the second unit of the Dniester PSP is a strategic objective for the domestic e nergy industry.The start of commissioning operations is scheduled for December 19 , 2013," Stavitskiy said. The second hydraulic unit on the PSP will be completed and commissioned on sched ule in December 2013.Introduction of the second of seven turbines will ensure add itional power production of 1 billion kW/h and provide a substitute for some 500 million UAH worth of natural gas.The construction of the first phase of three po wer units of Dniester PSP with a design capacity of 1,263 MW should be completed in 2015. The energy complex of the Dniester PSP is unique and most powerful in Europe. It consists of 7 hydro units with total capacity of 2,268 MW. The plant is unique because it is designed to operate in a cyclic mode, consumin g a surplus cheap energy of nuclear and thermal power stations by night and prod uces a peak power by day.The main function of the Dniester PSP is to control the frequency and load of the Ukrainian energy system. The first phase of the Dniester PSP will ensure quality of frequency of the prod uced electricity, significantly increase the reliability of power supply of the country, and expand export opportunities for Ukrainian energy system. Today, the Dniester Pumped Storage Power is one of the most capital-intensive in frastructure facilities in Ukraine in terms of both scale of construction, and v olume of financing. Dniester PSP is the largest hydroelectric plant project in Europe, as well as or ders for the entire domestic economy: 95% of the equipment - domestic production .Also, over 10 thousand highly qualified specialists are involved in the entire c onstruction cycle. The total estimated cost of the first phase of Europe's largest pumped storage p lant is over 8 billion UAH, of which 4.5 billion UAH are "Ukrhydroenergo s" own fu nds, 2.3 billion UAH in loans and 1.5 billion UAH in state budget funds.As of Ja nuary 1, 2013, the project already has committed 5.77 billion UAH. Offset: Some 8 billion UAH is aconstruction budget for the Europe's largest pumpe d storage plant