The four coal mines operated by state-owned coal -fired electricity producer Energy Complex (EC) Hunedoara, which is currently under insolvency, have increased their combined coal production to about 1,000-1,100 tons per day, from 600-700 tons per day. The coal is used for the operation of TPP Paroseni.
EC Hunedoara’s special administrator Christian Rosu said that there are four mines operated by the company in the Jiu Valley: Lonea, Vulcan, Livezeni and Lupeni and currently they are all operational. According to him, the amount of coal extracted from the Jiu Valley ensures the operation of TPP Paroseni for three days a week.
The Government has discussed the situation at EC Hunedoara this week, but no decision on the re- launch of TPP Mintia was taken. The plant was closed a year ago due to a lack of coal.
Earlier this week, the leader of junior ruling Liberal Party (PNL) Florin Citu said that Romania already has alternative sources to the fuels imported from Russia and one of them is coal and its use for electricity generation. He said that, most likely, some 600 miners will be re-employed in the mining sector, in order to increase coal production in the country.
He said that the Prime Minister Ciuca met with officials from the Energy Complex (EC) Oltenia and EC Hunedoara, with the aim to restart some of their coal-fired units. Citu said that some 300 MW of coal-fired capacity is expected to be restarted following the restart of coal production at some mines operated by the two companies.
