Czech heating plant in Uherské Hradiště ends coal burning, will produce heat from gas

Uherské Hradiště, June 19 (ČTK) – The heating plant in Uherské Hradiště-Mařatice has stopped burning coal. In the next heating season, it will use three gas boilers and one cogeneration unit, which also generates electricity, to produce heat. Further modernization of the plant had also envisaged burning municipal waste. It is now possible, however, that heat pumps will be used to produce heat instead. Representatives of CTZ, the plant’s operator, and of ENETIQA and the town of Uherské Hradiště, which own CTZ, told journalists today.

At the end of the heating season, the plant shut down its coal-fired boilers. „Today we began removing the remaining coal, which we were unable to burn because of the warm winter. We are now installing the entire gas technology in the former coal boiler house,“ said Kamil Ondra, managing director of CTZ. About 900 tonnes of so-called brown coal fine dust will be transported by truck by autumn to the Jasenice industrial zone in Vsetín, where it will be used by the heating plant operated by Zásobování teplem Vsetín, a member of the ENETIQA group.

Uherské Hradiště Mayor Stanislav Blaha (ODS) considers the end of coal burning good news for the town’s residents and the environment. „The existing heat production from brown coal fine dust really did burden the surrounding area with dust. Especially in windy weather, the dust spread to nearby and more distant areas. That is now definitively over,“ the mayor said.

According to Ondra, when the plant used coal it emitted about 23.500 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year; with the switch to gas, emissions will be roughly half that amount. He acknowledged, however, that the change will mean higher prices for customers. Natural gas is more expensive than coal on the market. CTZ plans to inform customers of the heat price increase at the end of this year.

The project to build a waste-to-energy plant (ZEVO), which is part of the next planned modernization of the heating plant, has also been put on hold. One alternative under consideration is to supplement the gas technologies with industrial heat pumps. The town supports this option. According to Ondra, the criteria for deciding how to proceed with the plant’s further conversion include the impact on heat prices and the effect on the environment. „We expect this assessment to continue until the end of this year,“ Ondra said. He considers a one-year delay acceptable. Modernization of the heating plant should be completed in 2029, one year before the ban on landfilling municipal waste.

According to CTZ’s managing director, the cost of the current conversion to gas is 95 million crowns, of which 36 million crowns will be covered by a grant from the Modernisation Fund. He estimated the cost of building the waste-to-energy plant at 500 million crowns, while heat pumps could cost 300 to 350 million crowns. In both options under consideration, the heating plant plans to apply for a grant from the Modernisation Fund, which can cover 35 percent of the costs.

CTZ supplies heat to nearly 6000 households, as well as to several industrial sites and businesses and dozens of service outlets. It also supplies electricity on a smaller scale. ENETIQA holds a 50.96 percent stake in the company and Uherské Hradiště holds 49.04 percent.