Groups 3 from Rovinari and 7 from Turceni will not be closed during the next period, according to a PNL press release.
“In order to dismantle all kinds of misinformation appearing in the public space regarding the closure of some thermal power plants, some clarifications are necessary. The Ministry of Energy has already decided that no production unit of CEO will be closed during this energy crisis. This rule also applies to old power plants, for which there is no other solution than to replace it with a new one, built from scratch. The General Directorate for Competition within the European Commission agrees to the postponement of all deadlines for the shutdown of the activity of coal-fired power plants. Specifically, the 3 groups of in Rovinari and 7 in Turceni will not be closed in the next period. Moreover, investments of over 900 million euros are now underway in Gorj and Dolj counties, for the modernization of CE Oltenia plants, through a state aid approved by The European Commission. Thus, by 2026, 1,300 megawatts will be produced from natural gas and 700 megawatts from photovoltaics,” states a message from PNL posted on Facebook, quoted by Agerpres.
According to the quoted source, the PNL governments, from 2020 until now, saved CE Oltenia from bankruptcy by granting over one billion euros of state aid for the restructuring of the company.
“This shows that we care about the people there and we did not let a huge and important energy heritage for the national energy system be destroyed. Unfortunately, due to faulty management, CE Hunedoara did not have the same fate and went into insolvency at the end of 2019 with debts of over 1.5 billion euros accumulated in the period 2013-2019 and has to return state aid illegally granted in the amount of 319 million lei in 2018. In the PNRR, no other deadlines for shutting down thermal power plants on coal have been specified than those mentioned already in the restructuring program of CE Oltenia”, say the liberals.
They stated that the decarbonization of the Romanian energy sector continues.
“The government adopted in June GEO 30/2022, which will eliminate coal from Romania’s energy mix by 2032, but in a phased manner, with the greening of mining operations and with social protection measures and professional retraining for people in the field,” says PNL.