China Development Bank provides $189 million buyer’s credit loan for 40MW Vitebsk Hydroelectric Power Plant Construction Project

On December 27, 2010, China Development Bank and the Government of Belarus signed a $189 million buyer’s credit loan agreement for the 40MW Vitebsk Hydroelectric Power Plant Construction Project. The loan has a maturity of 15 years with a 5 year grace period. Its interest rate is unknown. The Government of Belarus issued a sovereign guarantee in support of the loan. BPS-Bank served as the agent bank for loan servicing. The Government of Belarus on-lent the proceeds of the loan to a state-owned company called RUE Vitebskenergo and a state-owned company called Belenergo. RUE Vitebskenergo then used the proceeds of the loan to finance a $230 million commercial contract that it signed with China National Electric Engineering Co (CNEEC) on December 27, 2010. The purpose of this project was to construct a 40MW hydroelectric power plant (with four 10MW power generation units) in the city of Vitebsk near the Western Dvina River and within the Vitebskaya (Vitebsk) Oblast. Upon completion, it was expected that this plant would meet one-third of the electricity needs of the Vitebsk Oblast. Beijing Engineering Corporation Limited was the contractor responsible for the design of the power plant. CNEEC was the general (EPC) contractor responsible for implementation. CNEEC appears to have hired China Power Engineering as a subcontractor. Construction began on April 11, 2012. River closured occurred on May 15, 2014. Then, on March 1, 2016, the installation of hydraulic power equipment began. The power plant began generating electricity on a trial basis (with one of the 10MW power generation units) on December 1, 2016. Then, on December 21, 2016, all four 10MW power generation units were connected to the grid. The power plant was ultimately put into operation on July 31, 2017.

Additional details

1. The Russian project title is Строительство Витебской ГЭС or Віцебская ГЭС or Vitebskaya Gidroelektrostantsiya or «Строительство Витебской ГЭС на реке Западная Двина». РУП «Витебскэнерго». The Chinese project title is 白俄罗斯维捷布斯克水电站项目. 2. In the Overseas Development Finance Dataset that Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center published in December 2020, it identifies the CDB loan commitment year as 2011. However, AidData identifies the loan commitment year as 2010 because the loan agreement was signed on December 27, 2010. 3. The loan that supported this project may have been drawn from a $15 billion credit line that was agreed to in 2010 (see Project ID#42295). This issue merits further investigation.

Number of official sources

21

Number of total sources

31