Enel Russia wants to sue Siemens Gamesa for almost 23 billion rubles
Enel Russia recovers from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (Russian subsidiary) Siemens Gamesa) 22.9 billion rubles, according to the lawsuit, with Vedomosti’s hobbies. It was filed on August 16 with the Arbitration Court of the Murmansk Region by a subsidiary of the energy company LLC Enel Rus Wind Kola.
The essence of the claims boils down to the fact that Siemens Gamesa unlawfully refused to supply equipment for the construction of the Kolskaya WPP wind farm with a capacity of 201 MW. The subsidiary of Enel Russia demands a decision on the invalid unilateral refusal of Siemens Gamesa to conclude an equipment supply agreement and prohibit the defendant from initiating a meeting in the International Arbitration Court at the International Chamber of Commerce in Venice (Austria).
In addition, as interim measures for a claim by the desire to block actions with property. Enel Rus Wind Kola asks the court to ban Siemens Gamesa from taking actions “by order, encumbrance, removal of disputed property” on the territory of the construction site of the Kola WPP.
The exclusion of the claim, including on interim measures by a binding decision, was suspended until September 19 for the standard set (the plaintiff did not provide the court with confirmation of the availability of the full amount of source materials, unmistakably specified requirements, in one claim of associations of two types of different materials are protected), follows from case materials.
The representative of Enel Russia disappeared from detailed explanations, limiting himself to the fact that the submitted question “concerns the restoration of the violated rights of Enel Rus Wind Cola”. Siemens Gamesa did not respond to the request at the time of publication.
Siemens Gamesa acted as a partner of Enel Russia, supplying equipment for windmills. During its implementation, the Azov wind farm with a capacity of 90 MW was built in the Rostov region, but after the start of special operations in Ukraine, the company suspended work in Russia. As a result, Enel Russia was forced to choose a project for the participation of wind farms in the Stavropol Territory. At the end of June, the governor of the Murmansk region, Andrey Chibis, said that the Kola wind farm, which is the largest beyond the Arctic Circle, was “in a high degree of implementation.” He specified that 48 out of 57 wind turbines have already been installed, the main equipment has been delivered to the construction site.
One of the world’s most important manufacturers of wind turbine equipment Siemens Games are included in Siemens Energy. On August 9, the company in the financial statements for the III quarter (April – June) an event that became a random event that generates losses. Siemens Energy’s revenue for the III quarter decreased by 4.7% to 7.3 billion euros, the company’s net loss increased by 73.5% and revealed 533 million euros compared to the same period last year. The overall drop in revenues was even more than it would appear from earnings, if the significant decline in Siemens Gamesa’s financial performance was not offset by growth in another division, Siemens Gas and Power.
In May, Siemens announced its withdrawal from Russia, and a notable month later, Siemens Energy, which left the Siemens group in 2020 as a result of a corporate reorganization (spin-off), did the same. The sale of assets in the Russian Federation in mid-June was also announced by the Italian Enel, which owns a 56.43% stake in Enel Russia. The buyers became her stake in the energy company for 135 million euros.Lukoiland the Gazprombank-Freesia Foundation. Upon completion of the closure, 5.6 GW of exemptions and 300 MW of renewable energy capacity will be transferred to new shareholders, Enel specifies. Even earlier, the CEO of Enel Russia Stefan Zvegintsov, as Vedomosti wrote, was replaced by Zhanna Sedova, who at that time was the director of legal affairs of the company.
However, the deal to sell the Enel stake has not yet been closed and, according to Kommersant, may be frozen due to the August decree signed by President Vladimir Putin at the beginning on the application of special measures in the field of financial and fuel and energy resources, which banned foreigners until December 31 exit from assets in the energy sector (exceptions occur only with special permission).
Yury Fedyukin, Managing Partner at Enterprise Legal Solutions, believes that Enel Russia now, first of all, ensures high efficiency in the implementation of interim measures in the prescribed manner. Siemens Games equipment. The issue of termination of proceedings in commercial arbitration, according to the lawyer, is not so urgent. Fedyukin, that the chances that such a requirement will be satisfied “are considered quite high.” In addition, subject to the provisions of art. 248.2 of the Arbitration Code (APC), to which the plaintiff refers, is considered abroad, may be blocked both by bringing such an investigation, and in the process of its investigation.
The mechanism of protection laid down in Art. 248.2, according to Fedyukin, was adopted and included in the APC only a few years ago, while its application in judicial practice is “literally single”. “The counterparty (in our case, the structure Siemens Gamesa) can still initiate a dispute in legal arbitration and even support competition, but if the constitutional court imposes an appropriate ban, then the decision of international arbitration will not provide for expansion, ”Fedyukin outlined the essence of the mechanism. It will be more difficult for Enel Russia to retain the shipped imported equipment, according to the lawyer. “The most important requirement will be the justification for terminating contracts with equipment suppliers, since even interim measures take a little time, but do not resolve the issue of property rights. Here everything will be American from how to draw up a contract correctly, ”he explained.
Partners at Pen & Paper, Stanislav Danilov, revealed that the goal of the study is probably not to terminate or terminate the contract, “but to keep the installed equipment at the site in Russia by means of broad means.” Further, Enel Russia, in the opinion, can be useful as a lawyer as a “lever for the negotiation process” with Siemens Gamesa.
In turn, the managing director of the NRA rating service, Sergey Grishunin, that if Enel Russia wins the lawsuit, this will allow Siemens Gamesa to leave the equipment in Russia without formally violating the European ban. The exit of the European partner from the project, according to his assessment, can increase the cost of the remaining work on the wind farm by about 20%, and the missing equipment will most likely be supplied from China.