India’s GMR in Turkish power plant talks

ISTANBUL: India’s GMR Infrastructure Ltd is in talks with Turkish companies to build a natural gas-fired power station with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, the head of its Turkish unit said late on Wednesday.

Cenk Alpsoy, chief executive of GMR’s Istanbul-based unit, said in an interview with Reuters that GMR was meeting companies about possible investment for the project, but did not give names or say how large an investment it would make.

“Turkey’s energy market is growing fast and increasingly dynamic ... We are closely watching the Turkish market, and we want to make the investment to build a natural gas-fired plant. At the first stage the optimal investment would build a 1,000 megawatt plant,” said Alpsoy.

GMR may join a current project or start from scratch, Alpsoy added.

Turkey’s fast growing power consumption has sparked interest from international firms including Austria’s Verbund, OMV and Czech Cez.

The growing power production sector relies on natural gas and coal-fired plants as well as a growing number of alternative energy supplies. The Indian construction firm is active in the construction, airport operation and power sectors. reuters