Dunamenti Power Plant in Hungary to make lay-offs

Dunamenti Power Plant, Százhalombatta, owned by France’s GDF Suez, is to restructure its operations in order to avoid a final shutdown; the restructuring will involve substantial lay-offs over several stages, Hungarian dailies Népszabadság and Magyar Nemzet said on Monday. Népszabadság also said the gas-fuelled power plant, one of the biggest in Hungary, will switch over from continuous to demand-based operation and implement cost-cutting measures. Magyar Nemzet said the power plant will effectively cease to generate electricity, and will only supply power to the town of Százhalombatta, about 40 km south from Budapest, when demand is high and thermal energy to the local MOL refinery on the basis of demand. CEO Zoltán Jászberényi told the paper that the move is not a consequence of the government-initiated reduction in household utilities prices, but of market processes. With the current gas prices, electricity generation is not profitable at the unit, originally built for thermal energy generation. Magyar Nemzet said the lay-offs will only leave 100 workers employed at the plant.