Electricity producer Slovenské Elektrárne (SE) will resume operation of two units of the Nováky thermal power plant (ENO) that was halted on January 12 due to a fire on the coal supply conveyor belts. SE reconnected the first ENO unit to the grid on the evening of January 19 and the second is ready for full operation and will be connected when required by the electricity transmission network (SEPS), SE spokesman Juraj Kopøiva told the SITA newswire.
Slovenské Elektrárne is putting both units back into operation much sooner than Economy Minister Lubomír Jahnátek and Prime Minister Robert Fico had expected. SE Director General Paolo Ruzzini said that his company can guarantee the needs of SEPS dispatchers. If necessary, SE has sufficient reserves at its disposal, he told SITA.
The fire made it difficult to preserve the stability of the electricity transmission network in Slovakia, according to the economy minister who used this outage to strengthen his arguments for reactivation of the second unit of the V1 nuclear power plant in Jaslovské Bohunice, closed at the end of last year as part of Slovakia's EU accession agreement.
The ENO plant, which generates electricity and supplies heat to neighbouring industry and the housing is owned by SE, in which the Italian company Enel has a 66-percent stake. ENO has a capacity of 518 MW, about 7.5 percent of SE’s total capacity. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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