ČEZ to replace coal-fired plants in Czechia’s Ústí region with gas and biomass

The Trmice heating plant, which supplies heat to Trmice and Ústí nad Labem, is expected to start using gas and biomass instead of coal by 2029. New gas-fired units will be built in Ústí nad Labem’s Střekov district, with heat from them likely to start flowing to homes at the beginning of the 2025 heating season. Representatives of the region, the city, the ČEZ Group and the company District Heating of the City of Ústí nad Labem (THMÚ) said this at a press conference today.

„The EIA screening process for the new Trmice units supplying the left bank of the Elbe has been completed, and a tender to select suppliers is currently underway,“ said Rostislav Díža, CEO of ČEZ Teplárenská.

He added that, alongside the new heating plant, steam pipelines would be replaced with hot-water pipelines in several stages. Costs are estimated to reach several billion crowns.

The hot-water network is expected to have fewer outages than the current steam network. According to representatives of the local authorities and institutions involved, the investments in Trmice and Střekov should be better for air quality and ultimately save money for end users as well.

Five gas boiler houses will be built in Střekov to supply heat to THMÚ’s current customers, the company’s managing director Karel Sajvera said. The company has building permits for four sites and is still waiting for one more. Excavation work has already begun at the sites of the future gas boiler houses.

Customers on the left and right banks of the Elbe pay different prices for heat. People in Střekov pay more than residents of Ústí on the river’s right bank. „I expect the price to align with the right bank next year, or to be at the same level as there,“ Sajvera said, adding that heat from the gas boiler houses should be cheaper or similarly priced to heat on the right bank of the Elbe. However, there will still be two price categories within the city. „We’ll see whether the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ) allows the supply bases to be combined again in the future and treated as a single pricing area,“ he added. The gas boiler houses in Střekov will cost around 125 million crowns.

The construction of the boiler houses will have no effect on heat customers supplied by Energy, which owes money for emissions allowances. The company therefore faces the threat of having to cease operations. „If Energy ceases operations, we will use its heat exchanger stations and supply heat there in a similar way to the THMÚ stations,“ Mayor Petr Nedvědický (ANO) told ČTK.

ČEZ supplies heat to more than 86,000 households in the region, including around 32,000 in the Ústí area.