Polish Utility Applies To Government Regulators to Build Nuclear Power Plant.

[NNadir]

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-Consent_sought_for_Polish_energy_buyout-1210108.html">Consent sought for Polish energy buyout

Would-be builder of Poland's first nuclear power plant Polsksa Grupa Energetyczna (PGE) has applied for consent from the country's antitrust authority to buy an 84% stake in rival utility Energa SA, seen as a vital step in its nuclear construction plans.

Poland's treasury minister signed an agreement to sell its 84.19% of the shares in Energa SA to PGE in September, after ministers approved an amendment to a resolution on Polish energy policy to 2030 allowing the sale to progress. Now, PGE has filed an application to the country's Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) for its consent for purchase of over 4,183 million Energa shares. PGE is itself 85% state-owned.

PGE is not making the details of its application to UOKiK public "due to the character and importance of the transaction", although PGE management board president Tomasz Zadroga said the company believed its application would be successful.

Poland's government formally wants to have its first nuclear power plant in operation by 2020, although 2022 is now seen as a more likely date. However, according to the Polish treasury ministry, the country's major energy groups are too small to be able to be competitive on the European electricity markets. This in turn will limit their access to sources of finance, leading to reduced investment capacity. The transaction would therefore put PGE, already Poland's largest electricity company, in a much stronger position to fulfil its plans to build two nuclear power plants.

Poland produces almost all of its electricity from coal. Germany plans to buy much of its coal from Poland now that it has committed to a coal based future. (Ironically the Silesian coal fields were once part of Germany but were surrendered to Poland after World War II.) Poland's new nuclear plants will not represent a plan to phase out coal in Europe, leaving France as the only country in Europe that is not dependent on coal.