A consortium led by Siemens Energy has entered an agreement with Polish power producer ZE PAK to build a combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant in Poland.
ZE PAK – which is owned by one of Poland’s richest men, Zygmunt Solorz-Żak – and its subsidiary PAK CCGT will spend an estimated 2.3 billion zloty on construction of the 600 MW power station and associated infrastructure, as well as on servicing of the unit by Simens Energy for 12 years.
The plant will be built in central Poland at the site of ZE PAK’s existing coal-fired Adamów power plant. Construction – overseen by a consortium of Siemens Energy Global, Siemens Energy and Mytilineos – is set to begin this year, with the plant operational by late 2026 or early 2027.
Umowa na budowę bloku parowo-gazowego w Adamowie. ZE PAK zawarł porozumienie z konsorcjum Siemens Energy Global https://t.co/7AEZSGgx9C
— Gospodarka – Polskie Radio (@Gospodarka_PRSA) November 21, 2023
A CCGT power plant uses the exhaust heat from gas turbines to generate steam, which is then fed to a steam turbine to provide additional power, resulting in higher electricity generation efficiency compared to traditional gas or steam turbine power plants.
Although ZE Pak received confirmation that its subsidiary had signed the agreement on 1 September, the firm delayed announcing the news until this week as it was not certain it would receive the necessary building permit at the time of signing the contract.
For this reason, the contract stipulates that PAK CCGT’s financial obligations will only arise when the “notice to proceed” procedure is triggered, for which the company has until the end of this month. The firm’s statement did not confirm whether a building permit has been issued.
In 2021, however, the company entered into a 17-year contract with the transmission grid operator obliging it to supply 493 MW of energy from 2026.
An agreement to build Poland’s first nuclear power plant has been signed by two of the country's richest men.
"We need cheap and clean energy to be able to develop as a state and society," say Zygmunt Solorz and Michał Sołowow https://t.co/7YxYTtvHxS
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 2, 2021
In recent years, ZE PAK has sought opportunities to develop less polluting power stations in place of its coal-powered plants. Those mirror efforts by Poland’s government to push the country’s energy sector – the most coal-reliant in Europe – towards gas, nuclear and renewables.
Last year, ZE PAK signed a letter of intent to develop jointly with Polish state energy giant PGE and South Korean KHNP a nuclear power station in place of ZE PAK’s coal-power plants in Pątnów, central Poland.
In 2020, ZE PAK announced that it would turn a former open pit coal mine into Poland’s largest solar farm.
A former open pit coal mine will become Poland's largest solar farm.
The company behind the project – which is Poland’s biggest generator of power from brown coal – hopes it can become a symbol of green energy transformation https://t.co/EqxS4oMGBH
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 24, 2020
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Main image credit: Asian Development Bank / flickr.com (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED)
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
