Thurday’s meeting among representatives of the Czech Republic, Austria and the EU effectively closed the Melk process of Temelin safety assessment. As a result,the issue of Temelin should no longer be an obstacle to a closing of the Czech Republic’s energy chapter toward EU accession. Some safety adjustments at Temelin were agreed, and the Czech prime minister, Milos Zeman, said on Friday that the costs should amount to approx. CZK 100 mil. (the State Nuclear Safety Office said that CEZ has to finance the safety adjustment, contrary to earlier reports which suggested that they would be partially financed by Austria and the EU). Reportedly, the safety adjustments should not affect Temelin’s activation schedule. The relatively low level of the above-mentioned adjustment costs and no adverse impact on the activation schedule would clearly be favorable outcomes for CEZ.
The Czech Cabinet will discuss the Czech Republic-Austria-EU agreement today.
Separately, the Prague-based MFDnes newspaper reports that CEPS (transmission grid operator fully owned by CEZ) said that it does not have the capacity to transmit electricity purchased by SME (a regional distributor) from Switzerland. Neutral for CEZ.
(Jiri Soustruznik)