PJSC Polyus (LSE: PLZL) announced that an agreement for the supply of environmentally friendly electricity generated by the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant to Polyus’ Krasnoyarsk Business Unit (KBU) has been signed with PJSC RusHydro, a major Russian hydroelectricity supplier.
The agreement assumes the provision of approximately 1 billion kWh of energy to KBU in 2021.
Once supplies under the contract begin, 100% of the electricity consumed by Polyus’ largest producing assets, Olimpiada and Blagodatnoye, will be renewable, the company said in a media release.
Based on this estimate, KBU expects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 by almost half, while company-wide GHG emissions may decrease by a third compared to the previous year.
As a result, up to 90% of the electricity demand of Polyus’ production facilities will now be met by renewable sources.
The agreement will be in effect until December 31, 2021, with the possibility of an extension.
In 2020, Polyus and RusHydro signed a five-year bilateral agreement for the sale and purchase of electricity produced by hydroelectric power plants on the territory of a technologically isolated electric power system in the Magadan region. The volume of electricity supplied under this agreement is greater than 300 million kWh per year.
“This deal marks the transition of Polyus’ core business unit to renewable energy sources and represents a landmark event for our company,” Pavel Grachev, PJSC Polyus CEO said.
Climate change is a global challenge, and it is important that as a responsible business we support the decarbonization of the global economy. We are choosing to power our production assets with energy sources that will minimize our greenhouse gas emissions.”