Turkey’s floating power plant company Karpower International (Karpowership) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with state-owned trader JSC Energy Company of Ukraine (ECU) to enhance electricity supply cooperation and accelerate the use of floating power stations to alleviate the nation’s energy crisis, according to Offshore Energy.
The parties agreed to work alongside national and international organisations to develop and finance the implementation of 500 MW, which is enough to power over 1 million households.
Karpowership and ECU are considering floating power stations, known as Powerships, to be moored offshore Moldova and Romania, with electricity connecting to Ukraine’s grid via transmission lines. As a result, the companies will engage Moldovan and Romanian authorities to assess the viability of these two options.
To achieve their goal, both parties have agreed to hold regular meetings to jointly develop and implement the project and work together to secure the necessary permissions and approvals to collaborate with third parties, including international organisations.
Karpowership, which already operates across Africa, in New Caledonia and Brazil, said it has been in talks with several European countries to supply as much as 2 GW of electricity via Powerships to help ease the region’s energy crisis.
Powerships are ship or barge-mounted, fully integrated floating power plants which connect directly to a country’s electricity grid, leveraging existing infrastructure, and can do so in less than 30 days, the company claims.
Karpowership operates a fleet of 36 such vessels, which are multi-fuel enabled, operating on either liquefied natural gas (LNG), low sulphur fuel oil or biodiesel.