Press releases pg. 162

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, at noon, the MAAE expert team will complete its one-week follow-up OSART review mission in Temelin power plant. The team, made of five international experts, has been evaluating the extent to which the plant had incorporated the recommendations ensuing from the previous OSART mission, carried out in February 2001. John Cook (USA), the leader of the expert team, said that the plant management had been very attentive towards the recommendations and suggestions of the previous OSART mission held in February 2001. "The management of Temelin power plant went carefully through the recommendations and suggestions from 2001 and devised a number of programmes aimed at solving the indicated problems. The adopted measures are satisfactorily dealing with all the issues earmarked by the last review, which shows the responsible attitude of the Temelin staff, who are doing their best to ensure safe operation of the power plant," said the leader of the expert team.

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.