The European Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition of Vattenfall lignite assets by Energetický a Průmyslový Holding (EPH) and its financial partner PPF Investments. The Commission found the deal would not adversely affect competition in the relevant markets.
Vattenfall's lignite assets are mainly located in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony (Lusatia region) and correspond to the Boxberg, Jänschwalde, Schwarze Pumpe power plants, to Lippendorf block R power unit (total lignite-fired power capacity of 8.1 GW) and to lignite mining activities (Jänschwalde, Nochten, Reichwalde, Welzow-Süd and Cottbus Nord). Ten hydropower plants located in the regions adjacent to the lignite assets are also offered for sale but only in conjunction with the German lignite assets (they will not be sold separately).
The companies previously signed an agreement for the sales of the assets in April 2016. The sale was announced in September 2015 and is part of Vattenfall's strategy to focus on further developing in wind, district heating, distribution networks and customer-centric energy services. In 2015, Germany decided to put some lignite-fired power plants in a reserve as of 2018, including 1 GW of Vattenfall's capacity, to meet its CO2 emission reduction targets by 2020.
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