J&P-Avax awarded desulfurization contract for PPC’s Agios Dimitrios unit

The main power utility PPC has awarded the J&P-Avax construction group a contract for the procurement and installation of an emission desulfurization system at Unit V, the most recent addition of the utility’s lignite-fired facility in Agios Dimitrios, close to Kozani in northern Greece.

The contract for the desulfurization project at Unit V is worth 68 million euros. It still needs to be endorsed by a parliamentary committee before being finalized.

J&P-Avax plans to collaborate with Sirius Engineers Ltd, a project management, engineering and consulting company specializing in power station cleaning technologies, as well as Steuler KCH GmbH, for this particular project. Sirius Engineers Ltd will focus on the desulfurization project’s design and Steuler KCH on its absorption tower.

PPC’s tender for its Agios Dimitrios project developed into a long-running ordeal. The tender was launched in 2012 but ended up being cancelled while bids were being assessed as a result of wider project rescheduling at the utility.

A follow-up tender was then announced early in 2015. It drew five bids, made by Terna, J&P-Avax, Metka, Toxotis and an Intrakat-Ergotem joint venture.

Toxotis was eventually eliminated because a sub-contractor, CPI Yuanda Environmental Protection Engineering Co. Ltd – a subsidiary of Chinese giant SPIC – which would have designed the project, did not meet certain criteria. An appeal filed by Toxotis in May, 2016, was rejected. This contributed to a delay in the date set for the opening of bids.

SPIC’s elimination from the second tender did not dishearten another Chinese giant, CMEC – currently involved in talks with PPC for the construction and operation of the utility’s prospective Meliti II unit, also in northern Greece – from expressing an interest in the Agios Dimitrios Unit V desulfurization project. CMEC had proposed fully funding the project and being paid for its services over a period exceeding ten years. However, bringing CMEC into the picture would have required cancelling and relaunching the tender. Major delays would have ensued.