The energy company ČEZ plans to shut down the Mělník III lignite power plant in the summer, with a tentative date of mid-August. According to CEZ CEO Daniel Beneš, this year the company will also decide on the fate of the Dětmarovice coal-fired power plant, which primarily uses coal from the ending OKD.
“As far as Dětmarovice is concerned, we deal with the whole locality there, we also deal with heat supplies to Bohumín and Orlová. We have several variants that we calculate – how to continue working in this locality. The decision should be made this spring,” said Beneš. CEZ has previously stated that the Dětmarovice coal-fired power plant belongs to a group of power plants that the company has not anticipated for a long time.
According to earlier information, the Mělník III power plant should be replaced by a gas boiler room with an output of 140 megawatts (MW) and shortly afterwards by a steam-gas source, which will supply 200 MW. Construction is planned at full operation. CEZ has already concluded a contract for the construction of a gas connection on the site of the future gas heating plant. The complete transformation of the Mělník locality into a low-emission one should cost billions of crowns.
The Mělník III power plant was put into permanent operation in 1981. Until the commissioning of the new source in Ledvice, it was the largest coal-fired unit in the Czech Republic. Between 1994 and 1998, the unit underwent significant modernization in order to extend its service life and received desulphurisation. In addition to electricity, the Mělník power plant currently also produces heat to supply Prague. Nothing in the heat supply for the capital should change in the future, CEZ said earlier.
The Dětmarovice coal-fired power plant was built between 1972 and 1976 and is the largest coal-fired source in the Czech Republic. The current output of the power plant is 600 MW, one unit with an output of 200 MW was already shut down last year.
CEZ has recently got rid of other coal resources. Last June, it closed the Prunéřov 1 power plant and at the end of 2019 it did not exercise the option to remain the owner of the Počerady lignite power plant, which was acquired for 2.5 billion crowns by Vršanská uhelná from the Sev.en Energy group of financier Pavel Tykač. She took it over from the beginning of this year.
The vision of a gradual departure from coal was presented by ČEZ last autumn. At that time, the company stated that the installed capacity of coal sources in the Czech Republic will gradually decrease from 6.2 gigawatts (GW) to 0.7 GW by 2040, which is the capacity of the new unit at the Ledvice power plant.
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