Press releases pg. 16

ČEZ Group and Komerční banka today announced their strategic partnership for sustainability. The country’s largest energy company and one of the largest Czech banks will work together to reduce their climate footprint as well as their customers’ emissions, thereby helping the Czech Republic on its way to meeting the 2030 European climate targets, a stricter version of which was put forward by the European Commission this summer. Both companies have ambitious plans in this area: Komerční banka wants to become carbon neutral by 2026 and ČEZ Group plans to reduce the use of coal to a minimum by 2030, replacing it with low-emission and renewable sources in power generation. The first step in the cooperation of the two companies is an innovative model for installing rooftop photovoltaic power plants at customers’ sites. Komerční banka has also begun purchasing electricity from renewable sources from ČEZ ESCO.

In terms of technical complexity, it will be one of the most demanding projects in the history of the Czech Republic, worth billions of crowns. The important project must not disrupt the operation of the key Czech emission-free power plant. Selected control and management systems will be partially renewed and upgraded by Westinghouse as their original supplier. Westinghouse has the greatest knowledge of its system, apart from CEZ itself, which strengthens the safe course of the upgrade.

The Inven Capital venture capital fund has officially become the first holder of a carbon-neutral business certificate in ČEZ Group. It has purposefully tracked and reduced its carbon footprint since 2018, and last year it joined the European Leaders for Climate Action initiative, whose members are committed to climate neutrality and to promoting the principles of sustainability in business. The ČEZ Group signed up for carbon neutrality back in 2015 as part of the Paris Agreement and announced a significant acceleration of its transition away from coal, as part of its new Vision 2030 this May.

• Thanks to the production of hydroelectric sources, 528,000 tonnes of coal did not have to be burned, and therefore 495,000 tonnes of CO2 did not have to be released into the air. Such are the impacts that would have resulted from the production of the same amount of energy in conventional power plants.

• Upgrades and efficiency improvements of hydroelectric plants that help save water are also ongoing.

• For the coming years, ČEZ is planning solar parks with a capacity of thousands of MWs.

Hydroelectric plants (not including pumped storage plants) operated by the ČEZ Group in the Czech Republic generated 684 GWh of electricity in the first half of this year. The year-on-year growth was driven mainly by large hydroelectric power plants. The volume of energy from these “green” sources will cover the consumption of 390,000 Czech households for six months.