Poland Wants Utilities to Give Up Profits to Help Save Mines
(Minews) - Poland’s government wants to curb profit-seeking at state-controlled power utilities as it seeks to rescue Kompania Weglowa SA, the country’s largest coal group and third-biggest employer, and bolster the mining industry.
Kompania posted a loss of about 1 billion zloty ($331 million) on coal sales last year as global prices of the fuel plunged and power generators turned to other suppliers. At the same time, net income at PGE SA, the country’s biggest power utility, rose 14 percent to 4.1 billion zloty. PGE shares extended losses today, declining as much as 3.1 percent to 20.22 zloty, after comments from Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“While we should respect the need for state-controlled utilities to be profitable, the criterion of maximizing profit should be eliminated,” Tusk told reporters in Katowice, the capital of Poland’s main coal-mining region. “We can’t allow power producers to reap huge profits at the same time the mining industry is failing. We need to create a synergy.”
Poland’s government has backed 23.3 billion zloty of investments in new coal-fired generators at Opole, Jaworzno and Kozienice to add 3,700 megawatts of capacity. Tusk said Europe needs to “rehabilitate” coal’s dirty image and use it to break Russia’s grip on energy supply amid Ukraine’s crisis.
Publish date : Friday 9 May 2014 22:25
Story Code: 7884
