Poland's first nuclear power plant may get approx. PLN 90 bln financing from credit agencies
Preliminary declarations on the financing of the construction of Poland's first nuclear power plant indicate that export credit agencies are able to guarantee more than PLN 90 billion (EUR 21.55 bln) for the project, the acting CEO of 100-percent state-owned SPV Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe (PEJ) Piotr Piela told the Baltic Nuclear Energy Forum in Gdansk.
"We are making every effort to secure financing for this project (...). Regardless of the law and these first measures guaranteed by the Polish government, we have already secured financing from EXIM, the US export credit agency and other key export credit agencies of the state-future technology suppliers, last year, and these initial declarations of financing indicate that the agencies are able to guarantee more than PLN 90 billion to implement this project," Piela said during his speech.
He added that PEJ, together with its financial advisor, a consortium of listed lender BNP Paribas and law consultancy KPMG, is confident that the remainder of the financing will be able to be obtained from the financing institutions, the commercial banks, without major problems.
"The European Commission has also opened a verification procedure to approve our application for the approval of the support mechanism for the nuclear power project, the famous CFD mechanism (...)," the acting CEO of PEJ reported.
"We are convinced that all the activities we have undertaken before the Polish government submitted the official application, i.e. pre-notification activities, allow us to assume with a high probability that such a decision may be issued still in the fourth quarter of this year, and this will make it possible to actually finalise all the remaining elements of the financing structure," he added.
He stressed that it is only with the EC's approval of the CFD mechanism that the funds allocated by law will become available to PEJ.
"At that point, the funds made available by the export credit agencies are launched, and if the EPC contract is ready, we, as an investor, will be able to sign it and place the order for the large-scale components with a clear conscience," Piela concluded.
On March 13, Poland's parliament upper house Senat (Senate) passed without amendments a bill to finance the construction of Poland's first nuclear power plant.
It assumes a 30 percent share of equity and a 70 percent share of debt financing.
Based on it, between 2025 and 2030, Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe (PEJ) will receive PLN 60.2 billion (EUR 14.4 bln) to support investments in the nuclear power plant. The funds will be provided in the form of an increase in the company's share capital through a cash contribution. It will also be possible to increase the company's share capital by contributing in Treasury securities.
In December 2024, the EC opened formal proceedings on the planned state aid for the power plant. The support model assumes, among other things, a two-way contract for difference (CFD) for the off-take of energy from the future nuclear power plant.
Poland's first nuclear power plant is to have three reactors built with AP1000 technology from the US company Westinghouse with a total capacity of 3.75 GW. In its notification application to the European Commission, the government put the cost of the investment at PLN 192 billion (EUR 46 bln).
The first electricity from a nuclear reactor in Poland is expected to enter the system in 2036.
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