The Polish government plans to merge three power utilities, namely PGE (57.4% state-owned), Enea (51.5% state-owned) and Tauron (30.1% state-owned) into two companies: one new company would consolidate their coal and coal-fired assets, while non-coal assets would be grouped together in a separate entity. The objective would be to maintain coal assets on the capacity market and give great development opportunities for renewables, as having coal assets makes it difficult for energy groups to access investment financing (Energa and Enea dropped financing for the 1,000 MW Ostrołęka C coal-fired power project in February 2020). The merger and split programme could take months to materialise. As of August 2020, coal-fired capacity accounted for 64% of Poland’s total capacity. The country could exit coal by 2050-2060.
The power company Energa is not included in this latest proposal. In May 2020, the Polish energy group PKN Orlen (27.6% state-owned) took over Energa and announced that it would only carry on with the construction of a thermal power plant in Ostroleka if the project is fuelled with gas instead of coal.
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