Local authorities have granted a construction permit for the Mintia gas-fired power plant, a major 1.7 GW project developed by Mass Global Energy. The plant will be built on the site of a former coal-fired power plant complex in Hunedoara County, western Romania. With all administrative requirements now completed, the project has received the necessary construction approval and is expected to be operational within 36 months of construction commencement.
The nearly 1.5 billion euro investment makes the Mintia gas-fired power plant a significant economic milestone for Romania’s energy sector. With a planned capacity of 1,700 MW, the facility is set to become the largest and most advanced power plant of its kind in Europe.
The Romanian government has officially classified the Mintia gas-fired power plant as a project of national importance. In late 2022, Expert Insolventa, the judicial administrator of Energy Complex (EC) Hunedoara, announced that Mass Global Energy had acquired the Mintia coal-fired thermal power plant after completing the full payment for the takeover. The transaction, totaling over 91.2 million euros (excluding VAT), is considered one of the most important in the Romanian energy sector, particularly for the northwestern region, and was the largest insolvency transaction of the year. The Mintia thermal power plant had been owned by EC Hunedoara, which, in insolvency proceedings, auctioned the facility in a public sale on 26 August 2022. Mass Global Energy was the only bidder in the fourth auction.
In addition, in May, Greek construction company AVAX Group announced that it had signed a contract worth 673.5 million euros with Iraqi company Mass Group Holding for the engineering, construction, and commissioning of a 1,750 MW combined cycle power plant in Romania. TPP Mintia has been out of operation since mid-2021.