Sev.en Energy to upgrade Počerady to the highest possible standard
Press Release
Prague, 11 March 2020 – After its acquisition, the Sev.en Energy group plans to upgrade the Počerady power station, the largest Czech coal-fired energy generating plant, to the highest possible standard. The purpose of this investment is to meet the EU’s and the Czech Republic’s most stringent climate and environmental requirements until the time when the Czech Republic obtains sufficient energy from other than fossil sources. “We plan to reshape the Počerady Power Station into one of the most modern capacities in the Czech Republic, which will safely take the energy sector to the zero carbon future,” says Luboš Pavlas, the group’s CEO.
“Over the 50 years of its operation the Počerady Power Station has supplied the largest quantity of electricity to the Czech grid of all energy generating plants, and it deserves the upgrade for this reason as well. But we also want to be a bridge to the energy of the future, and once the need for coal ends, we ourselves will discontinue coal use,” added Luboš Pavlas. This is not yet feasible in the Czech Republic where renewable sources meet only a fraction of energy demand and new NPPs have not yet been built. Nevertheless, the Sev.en Energy group itself is making intensive preparations for a no-coal future and intends to continue to play a major role in the energy market: “Our primary mission is to ensure that Czech consumers can rely on regular energy supply for affordable prices in the future as well,” emphasises Luboš Pavlas.
This is also the reason why the Sev.en Energy group is preparing the Sev.en Innovations project. Its purpose is to identify and explore modern energy solutions, technologies, and processes of the future. “For example, it is no longer true that we are primarily a coal group; our state-of-the-art gas-fired power plants in the UK, which we co-own, have an output of almost 2,500 MW. At home in the Czech Republic we have, for example, become a member of the Ústí Region’s hydrogen platform, where we are primarily interested in hydrogen energy use,” notes the Sev.en Energy group’s CEO.
Another core area of the Sev.en Innovations project covers the latest approaches to the greening of coal-fired capacities. The group is gaining invaluable experience in this respect already now when it is upgrading the Chvaletice Power Station at a cost of CZK 7 billion. In applied research into emission reduction, it cooperates with Technische Universität Dresden and the Czech Technical University in Prague, and it is also preparing cooperation projects with other universities and researchers. Sev.en Energy intends to leverage this experience too in the upgrade of the Počerady Power Station. “For example, using Gore’s latest materials and technologies, which most people know in connection with Gore Tex outdoor clothing, is at hand. In the case of the Počerady upgrade we can use these materials to capture mercury emissions when greening this coal-fired plant,” Luboš Pavlas outlined the use of one of the technologies being considered.
The Sev.en Energy group is a major player on the Czech energy market. Its portfolio already includes two CHP plants in Kladno and Zlín, the Chvaletice Power Station, and two brown coal surface mines, ČSA and Vršany, in northern Bohemia. It pays up to CZK 5 billion to public budgets every year. “But we also partner the regions in which we operate. Voluntarily, in excess of the payments to public budgets, we support the regions by more than CZK 80 million every year,” concluded Luboš Pavlas.
Contact:
Gabriela Sáričková Benešová
Spokesperson for the Sev.en Energy group
Tel: +420 476 203 141
GSM: +420 725 327 758
e-mail
www.7energy.com
