Matra power station
{{#badges: CoalSwarm|Navbar-Hungaryandcoal}} Matra Power Station is a coal plant in Hungary. A new coal unit was proposed, then cancelled, and then revived again.
Contents
Location
The undated satellite photo below shows the power station in Heves.
Background on plant
Mátra Power Station (Hungarian: Mátrai Erőmű) is a lignite coal-fired power plant in the valley of the Mátra mountains, Hungary.[1]
On its website, plant owner RWE states that the plant "is supplied with coal from two opencast mines. Matra is Hungary’s second largest power producer and extracts half of the country's lignite." It also stated that in late 2006 and early 2007 two topping gas turbines (TGT) were commissioned at the plant which "have raised the capacity of the connected power plant units by some 10 per cent."[2]
The plant has five units providing 876 MW of coal-fired capacity and 66 MW of natural gas-fired capacity:[3][4]
- Unit 1: 100 MW
- Unit 2: 100 MW
- Unit 3: 212 MW
- Unit 4: 232 MW (plus a 33 MW natural gas topping turbine)
- Unit 5: 232 MW (plus a 33 MW natural gas topping turbine)
Proposed retirement by 2029
In March 2019 new plant owner Opus Global said it planned to phase out lignite coal burning at the Matra plant by 2029, and will instead operate a 500MW gas plant, a 100MW biomass unit, a 31MW waste incinerator and a 400-MW solar park. The company also plans to build 600MW of storage.[5]
Proposed Unit 6
A new coal fired co-generation plant was proposed by Matrai Erömu, which used to be majority-owned by RWE and the state-owned Hungarian Electricity Works (MVM), to have an installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts. However, RWE's website in 2008 did not list the project in its "power plant new-build" list.[6]
In 2010, RWE announced that it was canceling plans to add a new 440-megawatt (MW) unit to its Matra coal-fired power plant.[7]
However, in 2015 RWE was requested by state-owned Hungarian Electricity Works to prepare and submit an Environmental Due Diligence for the plant, part of the environmental permitting procedure. The plant would be 500 MW and supercritical.[8]
In November 2017 the Administrative Court of Eger in Hungary set aside the environmental license for the unit, saying the review needed to be redone due to inadequate assessment of the area to be affected by the proposed plant.[9]
Ownership
In December 2017, plant owners RWE Power and EnBW were in the process of selling their interests in the Matra plant to a consortium consisting of the Czech holding company Energetický a Průmyslový Holding (EPH) and the Hungarian investor Lőrinc Mészáros, through his company the Opus Group. In March 2018 the OPUS Group acquired a stake in EPH, putting the Mátra Power Plant under the exclusive control of the Opus Group.[10]
Project Details for Unit 6 expansion
- Sponsor: Opus Group
- Parent company: Opus Group
- Developer:
- Location: Visonta, East of Gyongyos, Heves, Hungary
- Coordinates: 47.79027,20.06358 (exact)
- Status: Pre-permit development
- Capacity: 500 MW
- Type: Supercritical
- Start date: 2026
- Coal Type: Lignite
- Coal Source:
- Source of financing:
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ EUROPA - Press Releases - European Commission approves "coal package" authorising restructuring plans for the Polish, German and Hungarian coal industry until 2010. Retrieved on 2011-03-02.
- ↑ "Lignite", RWE website, accessed July 2008.
- ↑ "Matra power plant," Wikipedia, accessed May 2014
- ↑ "Coal- and Lignite-Fired Plants in Hungary," Industcards, accessed April 2016
- ↑ "Nagy dobásra készül a Mátrai Erőmű - Teljes átalakulást terveznek," Portfolio, March 25, 2019
- ↑ RWE, "Power plant new-build", RWE website, undated, accessed July 2008.
- ↑ "RWE Cancels Hungarian Coal-Fired Project, an Industrial Info News Alert," Industrial Information Europe, November 5, 2010
- ↑ "Environmental Due Diligence," RWE, 2015
- ↑ "Vesztett a Mátrai Erőmű," Nepszava, Nov 22, 2017
- ↑ "Privátbankár.hu - Gyorsan kiszálltak a csehek: megjött Mészárosék nagy bejelentése," Privat Bankar, Mar 26, 2018
Related SourceWatch Articles
External Articles
- András Perger, "The role of coal in the Hungarian electricity sector with special attention to the use of lignite," Energy Club, November 2009
