The Austrian government, faced with the decrease in deliveries of Russian gas, announced Sunday evening the next restart of a disused coal-fired power station, in order to be able to compensate for a possible shortage.
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With the Verbund group, the country's main electricity supplier,
"it was agreed to reactivate the thermal power plant"
located in Mellach (south), currently shut down, the chancellery announced in a press release published after a crisis meeting.
A security measure
The objective is
"that it can again produce electricity, from coal, in the event of an emergency".
The process is expected to take several months, the environment ministry said.
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The Mellach site, the last coal-fired power plant in Austria, was closed in the spring of 2020, as part of the government's desire to eliminate this polluting source of energy and produce 100% electricity from renewable sources. 2030.
"Our primary goal is to secure the supply of the country"
, whose gas comes 80% from Russia, justified the conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who governs with the Greens.
"It's about replacing the missing Russian gas with other sources or suppliers so that we can continue to build up reserves
. "
