Sev.en Energy to be new owner of Pocerady power plant as of 2024

Prague, Jan 2 (CTK) - Sev.en Energy, a group of financier Pavel Tykac, will be the new owner of brown coal-fired power station Pocerady as of 2024, since energy group CEZ, Pocerady's current owner, did not call off the sale by the end of 2019, CEZ spokesman Ladislav Kriz told CTK today.

CEZ will receive Kc2bn for the power plant.

The power utility's minority shareholder Michal Snobr criticised that it is only Kc2bn CEZ will get from its competitor. Snobr has been a critic of the CEZ management.

In 2013, Vrsanska uhelna, now part of Sev.en Energy, and CEZ made a 50-year deal on coal supplies to Pocerady from the Vrsany mine, which included two options on CEZ selling or keeping the plant.

CEZ did not exercise the first option in 2015 and the plant remained in its hands. The second option was good by the end of last year.

CEZ did not use the option taking account of the European Commission's steps to limit the use of coal, Kriz said.

The power utility expects to hold more talks with Sev.en Energy, Kriz said.

There is a chance of Tykac taking over Pocerady sooner than in 2024, according to CTK's sources.

In November, CEZ CFO Martin Novak said that it did not make economic sense for CEZ to run a power station for which is does not have its own coal.

In this respect, Pocerady differs from power stations Prunerov, Tusimice and Ledvice that burn CEZ's coal, he added.

In 2017, Tykac offered Kc10bn for Pocerady. CEZ's supervisory board, however, did not approve the sale.

The transaction was criticised by Prime Minister Andrej Babis who was then the finance minister.

Environmentalists are against the sale, arguing that Tykac's company will operate Pocerady longer than CEZ would, and that it will not invest in technology for meeting new emission targets.

Pocerady and Prunerov emit the largest amount of mercury into the air, water and soil in Czechia, NGO Arnika said in October. Pocerady, Prunerov and Tusimice also represent the biggest source of greenhouse gases.

Pocerady has an installed output of 5x200 megawatts. It is one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the country.

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