ZE PAK SA Capital Group is a significant electricity producer on the Polish market and an important element of the country's energy system.
The Group focuses its activities on several areas. For many years, it operated mainly on the basis of a business profile focusing on the production of lignite mined in nearby open-pit mines, supplemented by wholesale electricity trading and the sale of electricity certificates of origin, activities aimed at ensuring an appropriate number of CO2 emission allowances as well as production and sale of heat. In a situation of pressure on high-emission energy producers and increasing costs of CO2 emissions, the Group has decided to change the profile of its future activities heading towards the area of low-emission and emission-neutral energy sources. There are also companies within the Group that deal with, among others, construction and assembly works, maintenance works, service, production and trade activities aimed at meeting the needs and comprehensive service for the industry.
The companies of the biggest importance for the Group due to their current scale of activity are: ZE PAK SA, dealing with production of electricity and PAK KWB Konin SA, dealing with the lignite mining. In 2024 the Group's conventional generation assets included 4 power units with a total capacity of 1,118 MW, powered by lignite and located at Pątnów power plant, in central Poland, in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. At the end of the year, units 1, 2 and 5 in the Pątnów Power Plant were taken out of operation. Currently, only one coal-fired unit (9 – Pątnów II) with a capacity of 474 MW is in operation. The Group's mining assets are concentrated in PAK KWB Konin SA, which has also been reducing the scale of its operations in recent years. Currently, PAK KWB Konin SA is operating only one, the last open pit – Tomisławice.
For several years, the Group has gradually been limiting its activities related to lignite mining and energy generation from lignite until it eventually completely discontinues this type of activity. Today, ZE PAK SA Group is a leader when it comes to the green transformation in the energy industry. Previously a producer of conventional energy from high-emission sources, in 2020 the Group initiated the most ambitious strategy of transition from coal to green energy in Poland - it announced, among others, complete phase-out of coal within the next few years. The current base scenario assumes that coal mining and coal-based energy production activities will be conducted until the currently exploited area of the Tomisławice open-pit mine is exhausted, which in the Company's opinion will not be longer than mid-2026.
One of the prospective assets is a 100% subsidiary of ZE PAK, i.e. PAK CCGT sp. z o. o., which is responsible for the preparation and implementation of the project for the construction of a gas unit on the premises of the former Adamów lignite power plant.
Another project, on which work is currently underway, mainly preparatory and planning, is the project of building a large wind farm near Opole. In the second quarter of 2024, the Company acquired 99% of shares in the project, under which the construction of wind farms with a total capacity of 500 MW is planned in the area of three counties of the Opole province.
ZE PAK Group cooperates with Cyfrowy Polsat Group, jointly developing the structure of subsidiaries of PAK Polska Czysta Energia sp. z o.o. (“PAK – PCE”), whose activities focus on the production of energy from renewable sources and the production and use of green hydrogen. ZE PAK is a minority shareholder holding 49.5% of shares in PAK - PCE.
The vast majority of the sales revenue generated by the Group comes from the sale of electricity. The Group also generates revenues related to the Capacity Market mechanism as a result of winning capacity market auctions (primary market) and taking over capacity obligations from other entities (secondary market). This is supplemented by revenues from the sale of heat and biomass as well as contracts for construction and renovation services. In 2024 an additional source of sales revenue, depending on the level of generation costs and energy prices on the market and production volume, was revenue from the termination of long-term contracts for the sale of electricity.
In 2024, the power plants of the ZE PAK SA Group generated a total of 1.43 TWh of net electricity, which was sold under bilateral contracts and framework electricity sales agreements, as well as on energy exchanges and on the balancing market. Including energy from trading, the Group's sales in 2024 amounted to 2.05 TWh.
In 2024, the Company's operating activities and financial results were determined by several factors with a very significant impact. The most important of them are the regulatory environment determining the possibilities of obtaining margins, the upcoming date of termination of activities related to coal mining and energy production from coal and development of available assets previously used in mining and generating activities. Each of these factors was so important for the financial results that it significantly influenced their comparability compared to previous periods.
In 2024, the sale revenues amounted to PLN 2,185 million and EBITDA was recorded at the level of PLN 282 million. As at December 31, 2024, the book value of ZE PAK SA Group’s assets amounted totally to PLN 3,850 million.
More detailed information is included in the management board’s report on operations ZE PAK SA Capital Group in 2024.