Press releases pg. 53

The first out of four units of the Orlik hydropower plant was put into controlled operation, following over a year of inactivity. Most of the hydropower plants of the Vltava Cascade had to be put out of operation after last year´s devastating floods, and Orlik and Stechovice plants were the most seriously damaged ones. The Orlik powerhouse therefore had to go through a complex overhaul. After 16 months of a forced inactivity, the largest and most significant power plant of the Vltava Cascade began generating electricity again (output of 4 x 91 MW) .

CEZ power company is entering a new stage, aimed at the utilisation of renewable energy, namely biomass. From the next year onwards, CEZ will use biomass on a much larger scale and with a long-term perspective. CEZ plants have incinerated 7 500 tons of biomass this year. Next year´s volume should exceed 130 thousand tons, thus substituting about 97 thousand tons of brown coal (of average calorific value), which would otherwise be incinerated by CEZ plants (the amount equals almost 100 trainfuls of coal).

Today, the CEZ Power Company officially submitted its Letter of Intent to the Slovak State Property Fund, thus expressing interest in partaking in the privatisation of the power utility Slovenské elektrarne (SE). CEZ communicated the fact that it is interested in all the company segments, including its nuclear facilities.

The combined installed capacity of all small hydroelectric power plants operated by the CEZ Group amounts to 59.7 MW (0.5 % of the total installed capacity of the CEZ Group). This means that the CEZ Group is the largest producer of electricity generated by small hydropower plants in the Czech Republic.