Energy Crisis

Slovenia’s HSE appoints Viktor Vračar as head of troubled coal plant TEŠ

Slovenia s HSE appoints Viktor Vracar head troubled coal plant TES

Photo: HSE

Published

October 21, 2022

Country

Comments

comments icon

0

Share

Published:

October 21, 2022

Country:

Comments:

comments icon

0

Share

Slovenia’s state-owned energy producer HSE announced a management shuffle. It said Managing Director Viktor Vračar would switch to leading TEŠ, the country’s only coal-fired power plant, which was temporarily taken offline amid supply issues.

Officials are insisting that the outage at the Velenje coal mine in Slovenia isn’t threatening the country’s energy stability. Still, the latest news from its owner, government-controlled Holding Slovenske elektrarne (HSE) shows it is taking the matter seriously. The supervisory board appointed Managing Director Viktor Vračar as the head of Termoelektrarna Šoštanj (TEŠ).

Finance reported that Tomaž Štokelj, an executive from GEN-I, is said to be the favorite to succeed Vračar as chief executive officer. He is a close associate of Prime Minister Robert Golob, who was head of GEN-I before the last election campaign started.

The nation’s only remaining coal power plant, which in turn depends on the only coal mine, suspended operations a week ago to stock up on the fuel for the winter while importing electricity is cheaper. The decision was prompted by a rock burst in Premogovnik Velenje, which cut the planned output for 2022 by an estimated 7%.

TEŠ will remain offline until the end of November unless power supply disruptions occur in Slovenia

The trouble is that nuclear power plant Krško is undergoing a regular overhaul until November 2, so Slovenia is currently buying electricity abroad to cover 75% of domestic consumption. The plan is to leave TEŠ idle through November 30 unless HSE needs to switch it back on in case of supply disruptions.

Vračar is taking over at TEŠ on November 8.

“Regarding the Slovenian thermal power plant, which provides a third of all Slovenian electricity production, he faces great challenges in ensuring the safe and reliable operation of the TEŠ energy facility and thus the supply of electricity to Slovenian companies and households. He knows the company TEŠ well, as he does the key tasks along the way, i.e. the green transition of TEŠ and the entire region,” HSE said.

Current Managing Director Matjaž Vodušek resigned this week, citing personal reasons.

TEŠ has been testing the use of coal imported from Indonesia.

Comments (0)

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Enter Your Comment
Please wait... Please fill in the required fields. There seems to be an error, please refresh the page and try again. Your comment has been sent.

Related Articles

Share coal power Finland nearly zero cogeneration plant shuts down

Share of coal power in Finland nearly zero as cogeneration plant shuts down

03 April 2025 - The now closed Salmisaari coal plant accounted for just 0.8% of the electricity mix in Finland together with three remaining ones

solar nuclear power prices europe eurelectric

Solar, nuclear lower Europe’s power prices by 30% in March

03 April 2025 - Solar broke a record in power generation in March for the third consecutive month, making up more than 10% of Europe’s electricity mix, Eurelectric said

PPC announces 5.8 billion plan for Western Macedonia, focused on photovoltaics, storage and data centers

PPC plans EUR 5.8 billion makeover of Western Macedonia coal region, including data centers

03 April 2025 - PPC presented a EUR 5.8 billion investment plan for the coal region of Western Macedonia in northern Greece

Eurowind Energy virtual PPA Romania automotive manufacturer

Eurowind Energy signs virtual PPA in Romania with automotive manufacturer

03 April 2025 - Autoliv contracted the supply of electricity from a wind park that Eurowind Energy built in Romania and Alight's solar project in Finland