We bring reliable and efficient electric power to high-growth, under-served markets. Reliable, affordable electricity is the cornerstone of economic development. By installing highly efficient generating capacity we can produce energy at significantly lower costs than current sources. In many markets, consumers of electricity are forced to turn to high cost self-generation using small generators because the local grid is non-existent or extremely unreliable. Unreliable electricity inhibits economic growth and expensive electricity takes its toll on economic activity generally. We sponsor projects that increase reliability while lowering prices. When this happens, everyone benefits.

Our investment in emerging economies also has the direct benefit of bringing into a country significant capital and creating high-quality employment.

Our KramatorskTeploEnergo (KTE) business is an example of how we combine local and international know-how, technological and engineering capability, and capital to create substantial benefits for the community. We operate a combined heat and power plant and manage the district heating system in the City of Kramatorsk, a municipality of 200,000 people located in the Donetsk region, a major industrial center in the Eastern Ukraine.

The Soviet-era 150 MW Combined Heat & Power facility is critical to the provision of heat and electricity to the city’s residents and is relied upon by Novo-Kramatorsk Machine Building (NKMZ) to provide this industrial company with the electricity and steam that it needs to grow.

In 2006, the City of Kramatorsk approached us seeking a company with the vision and know-how to turn the business around. The facility had suffered over two decades of neglect and its net output of heat and electricity was only 25% of what it should have been. The facility was poorly maintained and ill-equipped to supply the city’s residents with much-needed heat. We acquired the business with the objective of turning it around—upgrading its ability to supply heat and power by undertaking significant investments in the facility’s boilers, turbines and other equipment.

In just eighteen months we invested over $20 million USD and replaced two large coal boilers and rehabilitated a third boiler. An international, cross-functional ContourGlobal team repaired the facility, refurbished the large steam turbines and completely rebuilt the facility’s cooling towers so that it is once again capable of generating 150 MW of electricity, heat and steam. In the short time that we have owned and operated the facility, we have invested more in the Kramatorsk CHP than was invested in the preceding 20 years combined.

Today the facility is reliable, profitable and highly efficient.
More...