Energa gets up to $1.92 billion loan for power grid investments

GDANSK (Reuters) - Polish utility Energa said on Wednesday it has signed a loan deal for up to 7.66 billion zlotys ($1.92 billion) with Poland's development bank BGK to invest in the company's power distribution network.

Polish oil refiner Orlen, which owns Energa, plans to add 4.3 gigawatts (GW) of gas-fired power generation capacity and develop four offshore wind farms under its strategy to invest up to 380 billion zlotys by 2035.

The 25-year loan has a fixed interest rate of 0.5% per year as funds are disbursed under the European Union's recovery facility, which provides Poland with nearly 60 billion euros in grants and cheap loans.

By 2035, Orlen plans to invest 40 billion zlotys in its power distribution network. The investment plans assume building 11,000 kilometres of new transmission lines and upgrades of 10,000 kilometres of existing ones, Energa said in a statement.

Major grid upgrades are necessary as new power sources, including doubling of the utility's renewable capacity to nearly 19 gigawatts, will be located in northern Poland, where Energa operates.

($1 = 3.9924 zlotys)

(Reporting by Rafal W. Nowak and Marek Strzelecki. Editing by Jane Merriman)