PGE to decide on nuclear project in next few years CEO says, report

PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA

22/06/2024 09:21

WARSAW, June 22 (Reuters) - Poland's top
state-controlled utility PGE  PGE.WA  will decide on whether it
will invest in nuclear energy in the next few years, the
company's CEO said in remarks published on Saturday, signaling
uncertainty around the project that was initiated by the former
government. 
    Private Polish utility ZE PAK, PGE and Korea Hydro & Nuclear
Power (KHNP) agreed in 2022 to work on development of four
1,400-megawatt nuclear reactors in Patnow, central Poland, using
South Korean technology. 
    The project was set to be country's second nuclear power
plant, supplementing the output of the first plant to be built
by U.S. firm Westinghouse Electric Co on the Baltic Sea coast.
That first plant now faces a delay. 
    Poland's new government, which took office in December,
pledged it would seek to radically boost the share of clean
power in electricity generation that is now dominated by coal
but has yet to present a detailed policy update on the energy
mix.  
    "We are at a very preliminary stage of project analysis. 
The implementation of such a key energy infrastructure project
must be included in the government's overall strategy regarding
the development and target model of the nuclear energy segment
in our country," PGE CEO Dariusz Marzec told Business Insider.
    Only after the government decides on that model and once the
Patnow project analysis is ready will it be clear if PGE should
invest in nuclear power or focus on developing its Baltic
offshore portfolio of over 7 gigawatts, Marzec said asked when a
decision would be made.
    "It's a matter of the next few years," he said.

 (Reporting by Marek Strzelecki
Editing by Frances Kerry)
 ((Marek.Strzelecki@thomsonreuters.com;))