ČEZ Preparing for Modernisation of Additional Heating Plant Sites: Trutnov, Ledvice and Hodonín

• The Czech heating industry is undergoing the most fundamental transformation in its history, with coal being phased out and gradually replaced by a mix of natural gas and biomass.
• The aim of the modernisation work is to ensure that heat remains affordable for Czech customers.
• ČEZ is already building low-emission sources for central heat supply systems in Mělník, Dětmarovice, Prunéřov and Ústí nad Labem.
• Steps are now underway to prepare for the modernisation of the heating industry in other locations.
• In Hodonín, Ledvice and Trutnov, ČEZ is announcing tenders for new biomass and gas boiler houses, as well as heating and power plants.
• ČEZ Group serves approximately 450,000 households in the CHS system throughout the Czech Republic.

The Czech central heat supply (CHS) system is among the European leaders and ČEZ Group wants to preserve it in the most reasonable form for the next decades. This will mean maintaining a stable supply of energy at favourable prices for households, cities and businesses. Large coal-fired power plants, which have been operating as district heating plants for neighbouring towns and cities, are therefore being replaced by new low-emission sources that use natural gas and biomass.

In recent years, ČEZ Teplárenská has already started to transform the heating plants in Dětmarovice, North Moravia, and Prunéřov and Ústí nad Labem, North Bohemia. Some of the new sources are already in operation and the first to be fully completed this year will be the new heating plant in Dětmarovice supplying Orlová and Bohumín. The gradual transformation of the resource base is underway at the power plants in Mělník and Trmice, near Ústí nad Labem. Work is also in full swing on new heat sources in Prunéřov and Tušimice, where the first backup gas boiler houses were put into operation last year.

In the next few years, the reconstruction of heating sites in Hodonín in South Moravia, Ledvice in North Bohemia and Trutnov-Poříčí in East Bohemia should follow. ČEZ Teplárenská has now announced tenders for contractors for new low-emission sources at these sites.

“We are steadily continuing to modernise and build low-emission heat sources at our sites. We can therefore launch tenders for contractors for new biomass and gas boiler houses supplemented by other technologies according to the sites’ specific needs. If the tenders proceed positively, we expect to sign contracts with the tender winners this year and next. Overall, we want to end the use of coal in the heating industry by 2030,” said Libor Štěpán, CEO of ČEZ Teplárenská.

ČEZ Group supplies heat and hot water to approximately 440,000 households in the Czech Republic in the CHS system. It is investing around CZK 80 billion in the modernisation of heating sources and CHS systems.

Parameters of Tendered Heat Sources

Location	Number of households supplied	Subject of tender procedure
Hodonín	8,800	gas boiler house 15 MWt biomass boiler house 20 MWt heating and power plant 2x1.6 MW
Ledvice	19,500	biomass boiler house 20 MWt * * note - a 131 MWt gas boiler house is already in operation in Ledvice and will serve as a backup and peak source
Trutnov-Poříčí	10,500	biomass boiler house for combined electricity and heat generation 2x25 MWt + turbogenerator 10 MWe gas boiler house 2x32 MWt

ČEZ Teplárenská, a member of the ČEZ ESCO group, supplies over 9,700 customer points, and in addition to more than 130,000 households, the customers for heat also include hospitals, offices, schools and industrial enterprises. It has customers in 33 towns and cities in the Ústí nad Labem, Karlovy Vary, Central Bohemian, Pardubice, Hradec Králové, Moravian-Silesian and South Moravian regions, where it also exports heat across the border from the Hodonín power plant to the Slovak town of Holíč. The total annual supply of heat to ČEZ Teplárenská customers is around 6,000 TJ. The company is currently modernising its heating sites and distribution systems to ensure that its customers continue to benefit from central heat supplies for decades to come.

ČEZ ESCO (Energy Service COmpany) is a ČEZ subsidiary that focuses on services related to modern energy for customers who are industrial business, municipalities and institutions. This includes energy audits and energy consultancy, the construction and operation of heating and power plants, implementation of metering systems, renovation of heating systems and installation of photovoltaic power plants. ČEZ ESCO also handles electricity, gas and heat supplies, electricity purchases, trading in emission permits, the operation of energy facilities and their servicing. More at www.cezesco.cz

The construction of new sources in Trutnov and Ledvice is being co-financed by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme through the Modernisation Fund: HEAT 1/2024.