17 February 2025
Gas Plant Profile: Kozienice, Poland
PROJECT: Two new 700 MW combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) (earlier plans included three 750 MW or two 1100 MW blocks) on the site of a 4 GW coal power plant, the largest hard coal power plant in the country and one of the biggest in Europe. The new gas blocks are to replace the oldest 200 MW coal units.
LOCATION: Kozienice, Poland (center)
UTILITY: Enea
STATUS: The project was unsuccessful in three consecutive capacity mechanism auctions (latest in December 2024), with none reaching Enea’s expected price.
Map data: ©2025 Google, © Airbus | The existing Kozienice Power Station coal-fired thermal power station image: © By Unfortunately Named
In 2023, the Polish power company Enea announced a plan to construct either two 1100 MW or three 700 MW “hydrogen ready” fossil gas units to replace 4 GW of coal units in the Kozienice power plant. The existing facility, located in central-eastern Poland by the Vistula river, is the second largest coal power station in Poland and the largest Polish hard coal power plant.
In July 2024, Enea subsidiary Enea Elkogaz called for a tender for the design, construction and service of only one 650-750 MWe combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT). According to the tender documents, the new unit would start operation in 2029/2030. However, both tenders organised for the construction failed to secure any offers.
Due to high water scarcity in the region, recurring droughts, and concerns that the unit’s cooling water draining into the Vistula could raise its temperature, environmental authorities ordered Enea to instead build a closed-cycle cooling system—a more expensive alternative to the standard open systems. As a result, Enea decided to reduce the power plant capacity from 2100 MW to 1500 MW.
The Association for Earth and The Workshop for All Beings challenged the Kozienice project over its water management on the Vistula river, particularly the barrage used to dam the waters for power plant cooling.
Gas power plants have a significant negative impact on water resources. Poland has approximately 4-5 times fewer water resources per capita than the European average.
That was the case in the summer of 2015, when 5.5 GW of Poland’s total 60 GW power generation capacity—over 9 percent—had to be shut down due to severe drought and water shortages in the Vistula, as well as the risk of overheating at Połaniec and Kozienice thermal power plants.
The gas plant project has not received support from the capacity market yet. In the two main capacity market auctions organised in 2023 and 2024 to secure contracts for the electricity supply from planned gas units, Enea’s expected price was not met, prompting the company to withdraw early. The final electricity price for 2029 was PLN 237 (slightly lower than the one for 2028 auction), with battery storage proving to be more competitive than fossil gas and being the main winner of the auction.
Instead, Enea announced that it will build the CCGT without the tender, opting for a direct agreement with the Turkish consortium Çalık Enerji. The two companies are in negotiations and are expected to sign the contract by mid 2025.
Despite being coal-dominated, Poland’s energy sector is facing a rapid transformation. Cheaper and faster-to-build renewable sources, notably solar power, are gradually replacing coal. Poland currently has 33 GW of renewable energy capacity: 20.6 GW of photovoltaic panels and 10.1 GW of onshore wind. Enea’s management admits that it operates its coal units at the technical minimums, approximately 30-40% of their total capacity.