Prague, 9 October 2010

The Ministry of the Environment has accepted the proposed savings of greenhouse gases for the Prunov area
In April 2010 the MoE issued an affirmative EIA statement on the refurbishment of the Prunov I power plant, subject to a condition that was aimed to compensate the use of a technology with lower effectiveness than that of the best available techniques [1]. The aforementioned condition consisted in a requirement for saving 205,082 tonnes of CO2 p.a.; over the anticipated 25 years of operation, this would equal almost 5.13 million tonnes of CO2. EZ was to submit a proposal for compensation measures to the MoE within three years of the date when the statement was issued. The MoE returned the first proposal with a request for its supplementing by additional aspects. EZ submitted the supplemented proposal to the Minister on 17 September 2010. EZ proposes to refurbish the Prunov I power plant, but rather to discontinue its operation in 2019; from 1 January 2016, block B21 of the Prunov II plant should be operated within a limited regime of 1,500 hours p.a. These measures should save 358 thousand tonnes of CO2 every year in the period from 2016 to 2018 and 1,675 thousand tonnes of CO2 p.a. in the period from 2019 to 2023. In aggregate, a total of 9.446 million tonnes of CO2 has been saved from 2016 to 2023, which is more than specified by the Ministry, which requires a total of 5.13 million tonnes of CO2. EZ, a.s. thus fulfils another condition stipulated in the EIA statement, requiring an annual increase in the discharged emissions of particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the complex of Prunov power plants [2]. These measures will not only attain, but even exceed by 84 %, the required savings of greenhouse gases, while simultaneously reducing the quantities of dust, sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides. In its proposal for compensation measures, the EZ limited liability company also committed not to transfer the reduction in the discharged emissions to any other source in EZs portfolio of plants burning liquid fuels and declared that it had not previously considered these measures in EZs Action Plan or its internal documents; it also agreed to include, in its portfolio, low-emission or zero-emission sources that would be able to replace the given production in the relevant period, and that the saved funds would be invested in zero-emission energy sources. At the same time, EZ will plant non-forest permanent vegetation in the form of park or line greenery in built-up areas and developable areas of municipalities, in land equivalent of at least 200 thousand trees (the terms and rules for planting the vegetation will be defined within a separate grant programme).

You can inspect both proposals for compensation measures here:

Notes: [2] The annual emissions from the Prunov power plants may not exceed 400 tonnes of particulate matter p.a., 6,250 tonnes of SO2 p.a. and 7,600 tonnes of NOX p.a. If the compensation measures are put in place, the anticipated annual production should not exceed 296 tonnes of PM, 5,277 tonnes of SO2 and 5,726 tonnes of NOX in the period from 2016 to 2018. In the 2019-2023, the emissions will be further reduced to 210 tonnes of PM p.a., 3.384 tonnes of SO2 p.a. and 4,206 tonnes of NOX p.a.
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