The concept of an Energy Community Gas Ring was initially proposed in the South East Europe Regional Gasification Study (2009) sponsored and managed jointly by the World Bank and KfW. Building on this concept, WBIF has provided a grant to examine development options and financing arrangements for the implementation of the Energy Community Gas Ring and the associated gas-to-power initiative through public-private partnership (PPP).
The development of the gas ring would include the creation of gas anchor loads, which have been envisaged as combined cycle gas turbine power stations amounting to 2-3 billion m3 per annum of gas demand and located at strategic points on the proposed gas ring. This concept has been a relatively new approach to attracting the private sector to participate in the development of gas power plants through the establishment of a consortium of investors. These investors could be private energy companies, IFIs, state-owned companies (electricity generators, suppliers, gas suppliers, and traders), big electricity consumers and municipalities. In the net of contracted sales to the national utilities, each shareholder would have the freedom and the responsibility to sell his share of the electricity to distribution companies and/or eligible consumers, in the territory of the corresponding contracting party and/or in the regional electricity market, depending on their preferences (within the constraints of the regional network). This approach (contrasting to the usual practice of selling to national utilities under long-term power purchase agreements) is chosen to promote and support both investment and competition in the national and regional electricity markets.
