Ecology

Zespół Elektrowni Pątnów-Adamów-Konin SA pays particular attention to environmentally friendly investments.

For many years we have been making investment efforts and repairs to reduce systematically adverse impact of our power plants upon the environment. We focus on air, water and soil protection. These endeavours have helped reduce substantially dust, SO₂ and NO_x emissions.

All the time we maintain air observations (two high-grade automatic measuring stations in the vicinity of the Adamów, Pątnów and Konin power plants). We also make observations of surface waters in the lakes of the Konin region, which ZE „PAK” SA exploits for its purposes. This helps keep the environment under permanent control and take prompt measures in case of an ecological threat.

With the efforts made in the previous years, we have managed to highly reduce the emission of air pollutants. Consequently, those measures which are taken to adapt incineration technologies to the newly effective pollution standards are identified as an absolute priority in the investment strategy. Actually, this will also lead us to another important goal, and namely more effective production as in the example of the recently constructed Pątnów II power unit with a capacity of 464 megawatts. Apart from this investment project, many other environmentally friendly ventures have been either completed or launched.

ZE „PAK” SA gives constant care to the nearby lakes, which have been incorporated into the once-through cooling cycle of the power plants in Pątnów and Konin. We have initiated a series of research programmes in consultation with the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management in Poznań and the Inland Fisheries Institute in Olsztyn.

We are systematically reclaiming degraded land while restoring their forest, recreational or agricultural functions by dumping incineration ash in the former open-pit mines.

The sewage discharge figures of the newly constructed and modernised ZE „PAK” SA waste treatment plants comply with all requirements and specifications of the valid standards.

The implementation of infrastructural and environmentally friendly investment projects is not everything what we are doing. In 2000, ZE „PAK” SA initiated an array of organisational efforts to obtain some further tools enabling it to pursue its pro-ecological policy. They include the initiated procedures of implementing an 18001 Safety System and ISO 14001 environmental standards, which in 2003 resulted in the award of an ISO 14001:1996 certificate.

The Board of Directors consistently follows the Company’s mission, which provides for safe and effective production of environmentally friendly electricity and thermal energy.

Environmental Policy

Still a decade ago, the power plant’s volumes of emitted pollutants were incomparably higher. Emissions of dust and chemicals could be dramatically lowered with the enforcement (starting from 1982) of a large-scale programme of comprehensive modernisation. It reflects modern technical solutions and increasingly stricter environmental requirements.

By obtaining an ISO 14001:1996 environmental certificate on 22 December 2003, the Company could build more awareness among its personnel on how to lessen the Company’s adverse impact upon the environment. The award of the Pantheon of the Polish Ecology, one of the most prestigious distinctions conferred under the auspices of the Environmental Minister and the Director of the Polish Centre for Testing and Certification, confirms that the ZE „PAK” SA environmental management system has not only been implemented but it is well functioning.

Concentrating efforts on achieving strategic objectives, The Board of ZE „PAK” SA is undertaking formal and legal actions aimed to obtain all the necessary documents on carrying on a business activity in compliance with the Polish legal acts and European Union directives on environment protection. In December 2005, by the decision of Wielkopolska Provincial Governor, Adamów Power Plant was granted the Integrated Permission to produce electric and thermal energy. Both Konin and Pątnów Power Plants were granted such Permission in April 2006. In 2005, thanks to the efforts made by the Board, the Company obtained an extension for the existing concession to co-burn biomass fuels, in other words, a permission to produce “green energy” in ZE „PAK” SA.

Among its many pro-ecological efforts, ZE „PAK” SA is currently taking intensive action to utilise incineration waste for various purposes:

land-filling of incineration by-products in mine excavations,
sealing material for hydraulic engineering purposes (on municipal dumps, hazardous waste dumps, flood embankments),
road construction,
production of cement binders