Rising coal costs pushing energy prices up

Electricity costs are set to jump by as much as 10% next year following the increase in coal prices planned by the domestic mines. "Without growth in prices Kompania Węglowa will be in an increasingly deteriorating situation," said company spokesman Zbigniew Madej. Growth will amount to roughly 15%, and other producers will most likely follow this move as coal prices are increasing all over the world and the sector is brining in losses. Moreover, KW must meet its obligation of raising wages for employees by roughly 10%. "Purchase of fuel comprises about half of costs of generating energy, so if we wanted to take the rising cost of mining on its own, energy would have to go up by about 8%," said the president of Southern Energy Concern (PKE) Jan Kurp. He went on to say that if the growing cost of other elements were taken into account, energy prices would have to increase by as much as 15%. KW currently delivers almost two-thirds of all coal used by power plants annually. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B4) M.M.