Divestment from lignite postponed for three years

Τhe Greek government plans to cover most of the energy deficit that will arise in the event of interruption of Russian gas flows with the use of lignite and energy savings. Thus, on the lignite front, early lignite divestment has been put on hold and the withdrawal of the lignite units from operation is expected to be delayed for three years. At the same time, a plan to reduce energy consumption in the public sector and municipalities, as well as in industry, is being promoted, without excluding as a last resort the power interruptions in businesses and households.

In particular, with regard to electricity generation from coal, lignite mining will have to increase significantly, in order to double power production, according to the plan, from approximately 5 terawatt hours to 10 terawatt hours to cover approximately 20% of the annual energy consumption in the country. And for this to happen, PPC's total investments in mines should reach 150 million euros (from 100 million euros today).

As a company official speaking to "Vima" newspaper, new mines must be opened urgently. And as he explained: 2.1 tons of lignite are needed to produce one megawatt. In the last month, lignite has participated in the energy mix with more than 1,215 MW (covering about 17%-20% of the demand), so in 24 hours more than 61,000 tons of lignite are burned, when daily mining, at present, is around 30,000 tons.

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"The combustion-mining balance is negative. Mr. Skrekas announced the start of operation of the new 660 MW Ptolemaida 5 plant in September. Soon the reserves will run out and current mining is not enough. If no new fields are opened, the operation of the 4 to 7 lignite units provided for...