A joint special purpose vehicle - named PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa SA - has now officially been formed by Polish companies ZE PAK and Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE) to implement the project to construct a nuclear power plant in Pątnów in central Poland. The plant will comprise two APR1400 reactors supplied by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP).

PGE and ZE PAK announcing the creation of PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa SA today (Image: PGE)

The joint company will represent the Polish side at all stages of the project, including the execution of the siting and environmental studies, acquiring financing, and the preparation of a detailed investment schedule together with the Korean side, but also, in the subsequent stages, obtaining permits and administrative decisions.

PGE and ZE PAK - which is wholly-owned by the State Treasury - will each hold 50% of the shares in PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa SA, which will be based in Konin.

The Supervisory Board of PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa SA will consist of 12 members - six from each shareholder. The Management Board will consist of four members - two from each side. ZE PAK's Zygmunt Solorz will be the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, while PGE's Jakub Rybicki will be the President of the Management Board. 

On 31 October last year, Poland's Ministry of State Assets, South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, ZE PAK and PGE, and KHNP signed a letter of intent to develop plans for a nuclear power plant in Pątnów.

In early March, ZE PAK and PGE signed a preliminary agreement on the creation of the joint special purpose vehicle. Today they signed the articles of association of PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa SA.

"In less than half a year from the signing of the letter of intent, we completed all the works planned for this period, which confirmed the previously adopted assumptions regarding the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Konin region," said PGE President Wojciech Dąbrowski. "The culmination of these activities is the establishment of PGE PAK Energia Jądrowa SA. The company representing PGE and ZE PAK from today will automatically take over all tasks related to the preparation for this investment and ongoing cooperation with our Korean partners from KHNP.

"Nuclear energy has a chance to become the most important, next to renewable energy sources, source of safe and cheap, zero-emission energy for Poland, guaranteeing our energy security, strengthening the competitiveness of the economy and care for the environment."

"I am convinced that with such a pace of work and the support of state and local government authorities, institutions, offices and bodies responsible for issuing appropriate consents, permits and decisions, the launch of the first unit is possible already in the middle of the next decade," added ZE PAK President Piotr Woźny.

On 28 October 2022, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that the US firm Westinghouse had been selected for the first part of the country's six-reactor plan to build up to 9 GWe of capacity by 2040. The letter of intent about the Pątnów plant says the Korean agreement "is a new project to supplement the existing Polish government-led nuclear power plant plan".

Researched and written by World Nuclear News