Slovenian state power producer HSE has announced a management reshuffle. He said chief executive Viktor Vračar would step up to lead TEŠ, the country’s only coal-fired power plant, which has been temporarily taken offline due to supply issues.
Officials insist that the outage at the Velenje coal mine in Slovenia does not threaten the country’s energy stability. Yet the latest news from its owner, the government-controlled Holding Slovenske elektrarne (HSE), shows it is taking the matter seriously. The supervisory board has appointed general manager Viktor Vračar as head of Termoelektrarna Šoštanj (TEŠ).
Finance reported that Tomaž Štokelj, a GEN-I executive, would be the favorite to succeed Vračar as managing director. He is a close associate of Prime Minister Robert Golob, who headed GEN-I before the start of the last election campaign.
The only remaining coal-fired power station in the country, which in turn depends on the only coal mine, operations suspended a week ago refueling for the winter while importing electricity is cheaper. The decision was prompted by a rock hit at Premogovnik Velenje, which reduced planned production for 2022 by around 7%.
TEŠ will remain offline until the end of November unless power supply interruptions occur in Slovenia
The problem is that the Krško nuclear power plant is regularly overhauled until November 2, so Slovenia currently buys electricity from abroad to cover 75% of domestic consumption. The plan is to leave TEŠ inactive until November 30, unless HSE has to turn it back on in the event of a supply disruption.
Vračar takes over at TEŠ on 8 November.
“With regard to the Slovenian thermal power plant, which supplies a third of all Slovenian electricity production, it faces great challenges to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the TEŠ energy installation and thus the supply of electricity Slovenian businesses and households. He knows the TEŠ company well, as he is carrying out the key tasks along the way, i.e. the green transition of TEŠ and the whole region,” HSE said.
Current general manager Matjaž Vodušek resigned this week, citing personal reasons.
TEŠ has tested the use of coal imported from Indonesia.
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