Tykač’s Sev.en to shut down three Czech coal plants by March 2027

Energy group Sev.en, owned by billionaire Pavel Tykač, will shut down the Počerady and Chvaletice coal-fired power plants and the power and heating plant in Kladno in December 2026, and no later than March 2027, the company said on its website today. It cited the threat of permanent losses due to the outlook for market electricity prices and emissions allowance prices. According to the Sev.en Group website, the plants set to close have a combined installed capacity of nearly 2,400 megawatts (MW), while the Kladno facility also has a thermal capacity of more than 950 MW.

The economic situation is very unfavorable for energy producers that use lignite, the company said. The energy sector is affected by a number of factors whose future development is uncertain, it said. These include, for example, emissions allowance prices from January 2026, gas prices this winter, and the pace at which additional renewable sources come online. “All these circumstances have forced us to shut down our coal-fired facilities—the Počerady and Chvaletice power plants and the Kladno heating plant—at the earliest legally possible date, in December 2026, and no later than March 2027,” the company said in a brief statement.

Group spokesperson Eva Maříková told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) today that 800 people currently work at the two power plants and the heating plant, with around 2.5 times as many employed by supplier companies. The group as a whole employs 2,600 people.

Sev.en had previously signaled the possibility of an early end to coal-fired power generation. The current caretaker government has previously said that coal-fired power generation in Czechia will end by 2033. Other producers have also said they may close coal-fired facilities earlier.

In its current plans, the partly state-owned ČEZ Group says it will end coal-fired electricity generation in 2030, although an earlier date is possible if its coal-fired power plants quickly lose their competitiveness, the company said. “Our power plants have been modernized and most also supply heat to nearby areas, so their economics remain favorable beyond 2027. We assess the economics of our coal-fired facilities every year and will make decisions accordingly,” ČEZ spokesperson Ladislav Kříž told ČTK.

EP Infrastructure, part of billionaire Daniel Křetínský’s EP Group holding company, also plans to end coal use at its facilities by 2030 at the latest, and probably earlier. “Contracts have already been signed for combined-cycle gas units at the Opatovice power plant to replace the existing coal-fired units. We expect to take delivery of the first new gas unit at the end of 2027. The total investment is around ten billion crowns,” EP Group spokesperson Daniel Častvaj told ČTK today.

According to the Sev.en Group website, the Počerady power plant in the Most region has an installed capacity of 1,050 MW, the Chvaletice plant in the Pardubice region 820 MW, and the Kladno power plant 524 MW, while the heating plant has a thermal capacity of 966 MW. Sev.en also operates a heating plant in Zlín with an installed electrical capacity of 64 MW and thermal capacity of 373 MW. It is equipped with fluidized-bed boilers capable of burning biomass and biogas as well as coal. The company also mines lignite at the Vršany mine in the Most region and is carrying out land reclamation at former coal-mining sites.

Sev.en Česká energie, a company in Tykač’s Sev.en Group that owns the coal-fired power plants and coal-mining operations, posted a net loss of 2.1 billion crowns last year. Its loss had been almost three times higher the year before. The group’s revenue fell 26 percent year on year to 1.06 billion euros (around 26.8 billion crowns).

Another Sev.en Group company, Sev.en Global Investments, which manages the group’s foreign investments in energy, steelmaking, petrochemicals and other industrial sectors, posted a net loss of 11 million euros (around 266 million crowns) in 2023, according to its annual report, after reporting a net profit of 492 million euros (around 11.9 billion crowns) for 2022. However, after revaluing its energy contracts, the group reported a final profit of 142 million euros (3.43 billion crowns). The equivalent figure a year earlier was 508 million euros (12.3 billion crowns).

Financier Pavel Tykač is mainly active in energy and lignite mining and also owns the Slavia Prague football club. He is one of the richest Czechs and regularly ranks near the top of various wealth lists. In September this year, for example, the e15 website ranked him eighth, with assets worth 102 billion crowns. In addition to Sev.en Group, he owns other companies. In mid-November this year, he bought a 50 percent stake in publishing house Mafra from the Kaprain Group. Mafra publishes, among other titles, the Mladá fronta Dnes daily and the iDNES website.