Poland/Enterprises/Energy
Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – Four Polish private power plants, i.e. PAK, Poslaniec, Rybnik and Skawina, have sent a letter to the Treasury Ministry protesting against the plans to consolidate state-owned power plants BOT and PKE with distribution companies. ‘If PKE or BOT have at least 20 percent in Enea distribution group, Electrabel will not sell a single hour of energy there. PKE and BOT will win all tenders’, Grzegorz Gorski, the CEO of Electrabel (the owner of Polaniec power plant) said.
The ministry believes it has to strengthen the state energy groups. Besides, in EU countries there are similar solutions adopted. Private plants are not against the plan of integrating energy producers and distributors. But they would like it to happen in several years, when there will be no energy overcapacity. They demand that the consolidation is conducted through selling the distribution companies so that all companies have equal chances. Zygmunt Solorz-Zak, the main shareholder of Elektrim, controlling PAK power plant (the first privatised plant), is ready to sue the government. ‘The privatisation agreement was signed under different conditions’, he said.
Investors of the other private power plants may complain in Brussels if the ministry does not answer their demands. ‘EU will probably not stop the plans of the treasury. But it will control the issue for two years, which will be good as well because the overcapacity will not be a problem then’, an anonymous expert commented. The Treasury Ministry is not much interested in the protests so compromise is unlikely. ‘I got the letter from four power plants. I’ll meet their representatives but I’m not going to offer anything. I’ll just explain our reasons’, Dariusz Marzec, deputy Treasury Minster said.