Austrian group Andritz Hydro filed a case against Romania’s biggest power producer Hidroelectrica at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris asking for EUR 13 million compensation, plus an interest rate of 6% per year, reports local Economica.net.

Andritz Hydro claims that Hidroelectrica failed to respect the contract to refurbish the power plants Portile de Fier II and Gogosu, concluded in 2001.

The information appears in a decision of Hidroelectrica’s General Shareholders Meeting from March 3, which approved the purchase of legal services for this case. The two parts have already been in local court.

Bucharest Court rejected the claims of Andritz Hydro in February last year, and the Bucharest Court of Appeal further rejected the appeal of the Austrian company in November 2016. Andritz was obliged to pay the trial costs of almost RON 30,000 (EUR 6,400).

Hidroelectrica was in insolvency between 2012 and 2016. During that period, the power producer terminated the bilateral contracts for the sale of energy and the refurbishing of plants. Austrian group Andritz has been involved in refurbishing Hidroelectrica’s biggest power plants in the last 20 years. The contract to modernize the Portile de Fier I power plant amounted to EUR 1.1 billion but the plant’s efficiency declined after the process, according to Remus Borza, Hidroelectrica’s former judicial administrator.

editor@romania-insider.com