Oltenia Energy Complex (CE Oltenia) could not be able to complete the restructuring plan until 2026, without state aid, because it could not continue to produce due to the very high costs of CO2, he said on Tuesday, in a specialized conference, Lăcrămioara Diaconu-Pinţea, member of the Board of Directors of the company.

“There is a future for the Oltenia Energy Complex and we have been working on this for more than a year, with the first edition of the restructuring plan, made last year and still with the revisions and adaptations we should make, given the very dynamic context we all see around us. It was the price of CO2, then the price of electricity, the price of gas, so our forecasts need to be adapted to these new market trends. It’s a very important discussion about the future of coal, relevant for the whole of Europe, where there is still coal, in Germany, Poland, but also in the other countries with lower productions.

Let us not forget that every term taken by each Member State must be put into context. Poland has a very large share of coal, as does Germany, but it is a different mix of coal and lignite.
Also, their plants had a level of profitability that we don’t have, so that year, 2038, which Germany also assumed, was related to the profitability of those companies at that time. Coming back to Romania, there are discussions about this period that we have in mind and I think that the most important thing is to couple the two elements, namely, not only the period, but especially when we put something else into operation. It is difficult to continue to produce on coal, due to inefficiency, the cost of CO2. If we do not have new capacities to put into operation and we do not take into account the social cost of the energy transition, the discussion does not make sense,” said Diaconu-Pinţea, quoted by Agerpres.

The representative of CE Oltenia also mentioned that in the restructuring plan of the company there are elements that aim at the decarbonization process by making investments in production capacities.

“We have included a very clear element in the restructuring plan that we have proposed to the European Commission – the decarbonisation plan and which is related to these new investments that we are talking about. There are 2,000 MW that would be installed, of which 1,300 on gas in two combined cycle power plants – one in Turceni, one in Işalniţa. About 700 MW will be in photovoltaic projects on locations that are now connected to coal, either we are talking about tailings dumps or we are talking about slag and ash deposits. Both types of projects use existing sites – which means, in practice, ensuring a future for those locations “, said the member of the Board of Directors of CE Oltenia.