PGE to decide on nuclear project in next few years CEO says, report

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's top state-controlled utility PGE will decide on whether it will invest in nuclear energy in the next few years, the company's CEO said in remarks published on Saturday, signaling uncertainty around the project that was initiated by the former government.

Private Polish utility ZE PAK, PGE and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) agreed in 2022 to work on development of four 1,400-megawatt nuclear reactors in Patnow, central Poland, using South Korean technology.

The project was set to be country's second nuclear power plant, supplementing the output of the first plant to be built by U.S. firm Westinghouse Electric Co on the Baltic Sea coast. That first plant now faces a delay.

Poland's new government, which took office in December, pledged it would seek to radically boost the share of clean power in electricity generation that is now dominated by coal but has yet to present a detailed policy update on the energy mix.

"We are at a very preliminary stage of project analysis. The implementation of such a key energy infrastructure project must be included in the government's overall strategy regarding the development and target model of the nuclear energy segment in our country," PGE CEO Dariusz Marzec told Business Insider.

Only after the government decides on that model and once the Patnow project analysis is ready will it be clear if PGE should invest in nuclear power or focus on developing its Baltic offshore portfolio of over 7 gigawatts, Marzec said asked when a decision would be made.

"It's a matter of the next few years," he said.

(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Frances Kerry)