Veolia Invests HUF 10 billion in Oroszlány Power Plant

Veolia Group member CHP-Invest Kft. and Újpalotai Energia Ltd. have signed a HUF 10 billion contract with Finnish company Valmet to renovate the boilers of the Vértes Power Plant, in Oroszlány, W Hungary, the company developing the power plant, Veolia, told the state news agency MTI.

According to the company, the modernization of the boilers will be completed in 2024, and electricity and district heating will be restarted in the same year using mixed fuel, mainly biomass.

The Veolia Group announced in September 2022 that it had acquired the Vértes Power Plant from MVM Plc. and that the fifth largest coal and biomass-fired plant in the country would be restarted by burning wood chips and prepared separated waste (SRF).

The Vértes Power Plant's boilers 1 and 2 will be converted to a more modern fluidized bed biomass-fired system. The boilers will serve the district heating needs of 5,000 households in Oroszlány and Bokod and will produce more than 600 GWh of electricity, which is about 1.5% of Hungary's electricity consumption.

The plant will source wood chips mainly from the Oroszlány area, but will also receive biomass from further afield if needed.

The re-launch of the plant will also create new jobs, with recruitment starting in spring 2023, including vocational training. The Vértes power plant is expected to employ nearly 300 people by early 2024.

The plant has been out of operation since December 31, 2015. The plant has not been allowed to operate since then due to tightening environmental standards.

The closure of the plant in 2015 coincided with the closure of Hungary's last underground coal mine, nearby Márkushegy. The two facilities employed almost a thousand people.

The Veolia Group is one of Hungary's leading utility companies. The group had a turnover of nearly HUF 226 billion in 2021 and employed nearly 3,000 people.

Veolia's energy business supplies energy to 85 public buildings, 66 health and social institutions and 57 industrial sites, in addition to 50 municipalities in Hungary. As a district heating provider, it provides district heating to more than 40,000 people in 14 cities and provides heat to a further 620,000 people nationwide.