Unrealistic PGE’s plans of mining in Turów

During the press conference on April 2, 2020. the management board of PGE presented the results of the capital group from 2019.

PGE confirmed that the launch of the new power block in Turów may be delayed due to a pandemic. Many specialists need to come from abroad. In 2019, 4.11 million tons of brown coal was extracted from the Turów opencast. If the new unit is not started, PGE's plans for three times higher extraction become unrealistic.

The management board confirmed that PGE made a write-down of PLN 7.3 billion for old units at Turów and Bełchatów power plants and that there is a risk of delays in putting the new Turów unit into use. What is more PGE bungled the Gubin project from early on by also failing to secure an Environmental Impact Assessment for the mine in time. As a result, 3,000 people in 15 villages will no longer be unjustly displaced, and a 2,700-3,000 MW coal plant will not be built, for which the mine was meant to produce coal.

In the report of the board for 2019 years PGE also announced  a 17 percent drop in lignite and 11 percent decline in hard coal power plant generation. The company's power plants and coal mines once again recorded a decrease in production and lower capacity utilization. Its coal assets have been chronically underperforming, as shown by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) earlier this year.

– PGE’s financial report and the quiet end of Gubin demonstrate that the political fiction of a viable coal industry in Poland is over – said Kuba Gogolewski, senior finance campaigner with Fundacja "Rozwój TAK - Odkrywki NIE". “The declining economics of coal doomed Gubin, and should be ringing alarm bells for a company obstinately clinging to fever dreams of further mining expansion at Złoczew and Turów. Last year PGE generated over 50 TWh of electricity burning uneconomic coal, and only 2.29 TWh from renewable sources that expose it to fewer risks, while securing higher profitability. If PGE doesn’t wake up, it will be workers and Polish taxpayers that pay the price of its failures

Sources:

https://www.gkpge.pl/relacje-inwestorskie/Materialy-do-pobrania 

https://ieefa.org/aktualizacja-ieefa-pge-powinien-porzucic-plany-nowej-kopalni-wegla-brunatnego/ 

https://www.pb.pl/energetyczne-czempiony-pod-presja-wirusa-i-odpisow-987264

Fot: (c) Greenpeace - Petr Zewlakk Vrabec