
The ongoing projects of Vilniaus Kogeneracinė Jėgainė UAB, controlled by international energy company Ignitis Group, are financed by the Cohesion Fund of the European Union.
The Minister of Energy signed an order on 13 October 2017 to allocate EUR 91m from the EU Cohesion Fund as implementing measure of the project 04.1.1-LVPA-V-108, Promoting High Efficiency of Cogeneration in Vilnius City, according to the Priority Axis 4 of the Operational Programme for the European Union Funds’ Investments in 2014–2020. The implementation will comprise construction of a high-efficiency cogeneration power plant which would use biofuels. The nominal heat value of the power plant will be at least 158 MW and the electricity capacity – 70 MW. The power plant will use biofuels, primarily wood chips, with a total annual consumption of approximately 400,000 t. It is estimated that the completion of the project will reduce the total annual emissions contributing to the greenhouse gas effect. The main objective of the project is to increase energy production using high-efficiency cogeneration process with the use of renewable energy sources for energy production. The total project value is more than EUR 209m.
The Minister of Energy signed an order on 23 August 2017 and Vilniaus Kogeneracinė Jėgainė signed an agreement with the Environmental Projects Management Agency under the Ministry of Environment on 18 October 2017 to receive almost EUR 49m from the European Union Cohesion Fund as implementing measures of the investment project 05.2.1-APVA-V-022, Municipal Waste Combustion Capacity Development, according to the Priority Axis 5 of the Operational Programme for the European Union Funds’ Investments in 2014–2020. The provision of the Establishing of Capacity to Generate Energy from Municipal Waste in Vilnius City project is to create energy generation capacity in Vilnius city municipality that would use municipal waste of adequate calorific value left after pre-treatment and sorting by constructing a high-efficiency cogeneration power plant with the capacity to combust 160,000 t of waste per year.
The total combined electricity generated by the cogeneration power plant will be enough to cover the needs of approximately 230,000 households. It will also generate enough heat required for approximately 50% of centralised heating system in Vilnius.