Last Wednesday, Endesa reactivated Spain’s largest coal-fired power station, As Pontes, in A Coruña.
About six dozen people have already attended and auxiliary company contracts have been extended until June 2023.
At a time when Portugal is moving towards decarbonisation, infrastructure director Ignacio Sáinz revealed that 165,000 tons of coal have already arrived directly from Indonesia.
While the company says it maintains its “decarbonisation commitment through 2014” and “continues to focus on renewables”, this reactivation is due to an “energy crisis situation like the current one”.
The As Pontes plant had four groups available to produce energy. Last September, the Ministry of Ecological Transition closed two. Of the two that could be reactivated, one was put to work.
This is not the first reactivation of the plant, whose final closing date was scheduled for 2021. However, the energy crisis changed the plans.
In November last year, after months of inactivity, ore was burned again, with an interruption in mid-June this year.
In the summer, about 140 employees (40 employees and 100 subcontractors) continued to work in the factory. Endesa’s plans include decommissioning and demolition, but the energy crisis prompted a reactivation.
Source: DN
