Bill on completion of two Khmelnytsky NPP units to be tabled in early 2018

"We need to develop a draft law [on the construction of power units Nos. 3 and 4 at KhNPP], which shall be adopted by the parliament. Public hearings will be held before that. We plan to pass all the procedures next year, and to submit the bill in early 2018," Nedashkovsky said at a meeting with a delegation of the Polish Foreign Ministry on November 20.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's integrated power grids will additionally get 15 billion kWh per year due to the construction of the said units, according to Energoatom's estimates.

Read alsoTender for Ukraine-EU Energy Bridge partner to be called early in 2018In early November, Energoatom received a proposal from the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and the Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to provide loans to finance the completion of the two power units at Khmelnitsky NPP.

Energoatom had earlier presented its Ukraine-EU Energy Bridge project for linking unit No. 2 at Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant (KhNPP) with ENTSO-E (the European Network of Transmission System Operators) and exporting electricity. Electricity supplies to Europe under long-term contracts might allow raising investment in the completion of power units Nos. 3 and 4 at KhNPP whose readiness is assessed at 73% and 28%, respectively.

According to Nedashkovsky, Energoatom plans to start electricity exports to the EU and complete the said units in late 2020 and early 2021.

UNIAN memo. Khmelnytsky NPP is located in the city of Netishyn, Khmelnitsky region. Two power units (VVER-1000) with a total capacity of 2 GW operate at the station (put into operation in 1987 and 2004). The main purpose of the station is to cover the gap in electricity supplies in western Ukraine. Work on the completion of the third and fourth units at KhNPP have not been performed in the past years, among the reasons is the lack of funding.