Met buys Bulgarian, Spanish power production units

Switzerland-based energy group Met has agreed to buy a 60MW wind farm in Bulgaria, its second wind facility in the country, and five combined heat and power (CHP) plants with a total capacity of 75MW in Spain.

Met has signed an agreement with Spanish renewable firm Grupo Enhol to acquire the 60MW Suvorovo wind farm near the Black Sea coast in western Bulgaria. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter. Suvorovo was commissioned in 2012 and produces about 120 GWh/yr. The plant will be Met's second wind farm in Bulgaria after the 42MW Kavarna facility, which the company purchased from Italian utility Enel last year.

Met launched a strategy in 2019 to develop a diversified renewable portfolio of 500MW in the region by 2023. It commissioned the 43MW Kaba and 17.6MW Szazhalombatta solar photovoltaic facilities in Hungary in 2018-20 and is developing the 102MW Plandiste wind farm in Serbia in a joint venture with Russian oil firm Gazpromneft's local subsidiary NIS. Met has also commissioned a 1.2MW biogas-fired CHP plant in Serbia.

In a separate transaction announced in late July, Met also acquired Spanish CHP producer Cogen Energia Espana from Norwegian energy firm Arendals Fossekompani. The newly purchased company runs five CHP plants in Spain with a combined capacity of 75MW and total electricity output of about 600 GWh/yr. It also has leased assets and provides power market services as well as operation and maintenance services to third parties.

Grid balancing and flexible power production have become particularly important in European markets, as the rising volume of intermittent renewable generation fed into the grid makes matching power supply with demand more difficult, Met has said. The firm plans further acquisitions of "flexibility assets", primarily in Spain, Italy and Germany, in the future.