Slovakia connects Mochovce nuclear power plant's fourth unit

Oct 16 (Reuters) — Slovakia connected the fourth unit of the Mochovce nuclear power plant for the first time on Thursday night and it has begun supplying electricity, operator Slovenske Elektrarne said. The synchronization took place while the reactor was operating at 20% power, it said on Friday The company began powering up the unit in September in a process that gradually increases reactor output Unit 4 has a total installed electrical capacity of 471 MW and, once fully operational, is expected to generate around 3.5 million MWh of electricity annually, enough to cover approximately 13% of Slovakia’s current electricity consumption Slovenske Elektrarne, which operates the Mochovce plant, has said the new unit should be fully operational by year-end Slovenske Elektrarne is majority owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky's EPH group, and the Slovak state has a 34% stake that it has expressed interest in increasing The company said previously that after the new unit goes into operation, nuclear power would cover 77.5% of Slovakia's demand, ahead of European leader France in percentage terms (Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) ((anna.wlodarczak@t