Tentative Agreement Reached on First Polish Nuclear Plant

A tentative agreement reached by a group of Polish companies this week will move the country a step closer to building its first nuclear plant.

Polish news agency PAP quoted unnamed sources as saying negotiations among utilities Polska Grupa Energetyczna, Tauron and Enea, as well as mining company KGHM Polsaka Miedz, have reached a point where a contract on joint ownership of the plant could emerge as early as September. The agreement would come a year after the companies signed an initial letter of intent to buy into a joint company tasked with building the plant, according to the Warsaw Voice. Operation of the first unit is envisioned in 2024.

With the largest reserves in the European Union, Poland currently generates about 90 percent of its power from coal.

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Polish nuclear site contract awarded

WorleyParsons is to carry out site characterisation, licensing and permitting services for Poland's first nuclear power plant, Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA (PGE) has announced.

PGE EJ1, an entity of the Polish state-owned energy group set up to build and run the plant, has awarded PLN 252 million ($81.5 million) the contract to a consortium of WorleyParsons Nuclear Services, WorleyParsons International Inc and WorleyParsons Group Inc following a public tender procedure. PGE EJ1 president Aleksander Grad described the selection of the site characterisation contractor as critical to the project's progress. "Characterisation activities ... will inform one of the most significant decisions, that is the selection of the final site for Poland's first nuclear power plant," he said.

PGE plans to install around 3000 MWe of nuclear capacity, with its first unit coming online by 2025. The site characterisation phase will include over two years of site and environmental surveys, covering a range of issues from geological conditions and the natural environment to logistics and infrastructure. Three potential sites are under consideration: Choczewo, Gaski and Zarnowiec. Work began on four Russian VVER-440 units at Zarnowiec in the 1980s, but the units were cancelled in 1990 and the components sold. No reactor vendor has yet been selected for the current project, although PGE has signed non-exclusive agreements with vendors to investigate EPR, ABWR and ESBWR technology.

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KGHM, 3 utilities to share cost of 1st Polish nuclear project

Poland wants to develop nuclear power to reduce its dependence on highly polluting coal, but top utility PGE , which is managing the project, cannot support the entire cost on its own.

All four companies planning to sign a letter of intent on the nuclear plant are state-controlled. The huge costs and long lead times before the first power is sold make it difficult for nuclear power projects to attract private companies.

"The agreement will be signed on Wednesday, at 1600 (local time)," PGE Chief Executive Krzysztof Kilian said on Tuesday in an interview.

Executives of Tauron, Poland's second-biggest utility; Enea, the third-biggest; and miner KGHM told Reuters their companies would participate in the agreement.

It was not clear whether other companies will join in.

"The letter of intent will be a very general document, which will allow us to set up working groups dedicated to the nuclear power project. Issues concerning financing will be discussed later," Enea Chief Financial Officer Hubert Rozpedek said.

European Union member Poland aims to launch a 3 gigawatt nuclear plant by 2023 and double that capacity by 2030 in a bid to reduce reliance on coal and supply energy to its expanding economy.

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Poland wants state companies to finance 6 GW nuclear plan: minister

Polish state-controlled companies should help finance the country's nuclear power plans, Treasury Minister Mikolaj Budzanowski said late Thursday.

The Polish government has tasked the country's largest power company, state-controlled Polska Grupa Energetyczna, to lead a consortium to build 6 GW of nuclear capacity in two separate locations by 2030, but there is concern about PGE's ability to finance the project alone.

Budzanowski said he would like to "combine the strength of the state Treasury companies" so that other power utilities, Tauron and Enea, and the country's copper miner, KGHM, co-finance the program.

"Financial investors, not direct [investors], but financial investors that will co-fund the investment together with PGE; for example, KGHM, Tauron and Enea," Budzanowski said on local television Superstacja. He added another state-controlled company could join the project.

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Poland's PGE to launch nuclear tender by end June

By Maciej Onoszko

KATOWICE, Poland, May 15 (Reuters) - Poland's biggest utility, PGE, plans to launch a tender for the technology that will be used in the country's first nuclear power plant by the end of next month, its deputy head said on Tuesday.

In a bid to reduce its reliance on highly-polluting coal and provide energy for its expanding economy, Poland is planning a 3 gigawatt nuclear plant and hopes to double its capacity by 2030.

State-controlled PGE, which also reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, is managing the project.
The process of choosing the nuclear technology has so far attracted the interest of American-Japanese group GE Hitachi , France's Areva and Westinghouse, a U.S unit of Japan's Toshiba.

But it has been hampered by bureaucratic delays. PGE said in March the tender would be launched within two months, but had provided no further information on the matter since then.

"Our schedule assumes the tender for the nuclear plant's contractor will be launched in the second quarter," Boguslawa Matuszewska told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an economic congress taking place in Katowice, the capital of Poland's coal region in the southwest.

PGE is looking at running the project with a partner or on its own, and with or without state guarantees, Matuszewska said.

Like other Polish utilities, PGE relies almost exclusively on coal.

Thanks to the launch of the country's largest power unit at its lignite-fired plant in Belchatow, PGE reported a better-than-expected 27-percent jump in earnings for the first three months of the year to 1.53 billion zlotys ($456 million).

By 1320 GMT, PGE shares were down 0.1 percent as Warsaw's main index slipped 1.2 percent.

PGE launched the 858-megawatt unit in September, helping it to increase power generation in the first three months of this year by a tenth to 15.4 terawatt-hours.

"We have giant volumes on lignite-fired blocks, they were all working at full capacity," said Pawel Puchalski, an analyst at Bank Zachodni WBK brokerage.

Matuszewska also said the utility may decide to keep its telecoms arm Exatel, which it was expected to try to sell again after an earlier failed attempt.

"We should make a decision on Exatel in a relatively very short period of time. We are seriously considering a scenario assuming retaining Exatel within the group," he said.

Exatel provides telecom services to a number of public institutions, including those responsible for state security, and might therefore need to remain under state control.

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Areva Says It Will Bid With EDF to Build Polish Nuclear Plant

Areva SA (AREVA) Chief Executive Officer Luc Oursel said the nuclear reactor maker will make a joint bid with French power utility Electricite de France SA to build an atomic plant in Poland. “For the construction of the plant, we’ll bid with EDF,”the CEO of the Paris-based nuclear company said at a senate hearing in the French capital today. “It’s possible that the Polish utility will ask EDF or others to invest in the plant and bring their operational experience.”

PGE SA (PGE), Poland’s largest utility, wants to start a tender within the next two months for a technology provider for a planned nuclear power plant, Chief Financial Officer Wojciech Ostrowski said March 14. Areva is bidding to provide nuclear reactors in China, India, the U.K., Finland and the Czech Republic, and is currently building plants in France, Finland and China, said Oursel.

The company has said it expects use of atomic power to increase, helped by the need to cut reliance on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions.

Poland’s first nuclear plant will be fully operational in 2025, a major energy group sai

February 13, 2012|Associated Press

Poland’s first nuclear plant will be fully operational in 2025, a major energy group said, as residents of a popular summer vacation resort area overwhelmingly expressed their disapproval of building the reactor there.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that Poland should have the first phase of its first nuclear plant working in 2020 to diversify the country’s mix of energy sources.

The new strategy plan by the Polish Energy Group says a 3,000 megawatt plant should be fully operational only in 2025, prompting Polish media to speculate that plant construction might start later than the government hopes.

The PGE outlined its 2012-2035 strategy on its website over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the majority of residents in the county of Mielno voted against a reactor being built in the county’s village of Gaski. It would be the first of two plants in Poland.

Mielno county said on its website Monday that some 2,237 among the 4,171 eligible voters were against a nuclear plant in Gaski. The local referendum on Sunday had 57 percent turnout.

The residents fear a plant will scare off holidaymakers. Gaski and two other locations on the Baltic Sea coast — Choczewo and Zarnowiec — are being considered for Poland’s first nuclear plant.

The government official in charge of developing nuclear power, Hanna Trojanowska, said the referendum will be taken into consideration.

Poland is seeking to diversify its energy sources and reduce its dependence on imports from Russia.

PGE strategy said that in 2035 Poland’s fuel mix should be composed in some 36 percent from nuclear power, in 33 percent from lignite coal-generated power and in 14 percent of renewable energy. Gas should contribute in 11 percent and hard coal in five percent.

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