France & Belgium

In July of 2006, Enel acquired Erelis in France. Today Enel Erelis, with its headquarters in Lyons, has a portfolio of with wind power projects under development amounting to approximately 500 MW in various regions of the country.

Enel has thus consolidated its presence in renewable sources, by entering the French wind power market, which attained 1,300 MW of installed capacity in the first few months of 2007. Although these figures are still far from rivalling those of Germany and Spain, the European leaders, the French wind power market presents significant growth potential: it practically doubled in size between 2004 and 2006 and the same is forecasted to happen over the next two years.

Enel, furthermore, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Edf to acquire 12.5% stake in the first six projects utilizing the newest generation, nuclear European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR), which foresees the payment in advance by EDF for an electrical energy supply of 1,200 MW. Enel has been trading 300 MW in France since 2006, becoming one of the main players of the French energy exchange, Powernext, of which it owns 5%.

Enel is scouting sites in France and in Belgium to build new combined cycle and coal-fired power plants. With this in mind, it has sealed a partnership agreement with Duferco, one of the major iron and steel groups in Europe, to build a combined cycle gas power plant, with a capacity of approximately 420 MW net and a power plant, which reuses the gases at the industrial site of Marcinelle – Marchienne to produce approximately 65 MW of energy.

The cooperation between Duferco and Enel is not limited to the commercialisation of the electricity produced by the two new power plants but is also extends to other new projects in the region.

 

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