In recent months, the Ministry of Energy, the Electricity Authority and the Electric Company have approached the Ministry of Environmental Protection with a request to approve an additional 10,000 operating hours in 2022 for the four converted units at the Eshkol power plant in Ashdod (Kituriot). At the same time, these parties submitted a request to renew the emission permit of these units, which will expire in September 2023 – the date when all the parties committed that these stations would go out of operation.
The steam units operate without air pollution reduction facilities and are among the most polluting in Israel. They work with old technology that does not meet the regulatory requirements of the European Union and the requirements of the Clean Air Act. These units produce pollution at a level up to 3 times higher than what is allowed in the European Union. The cost of local air pollution from them is almost 2 times higher compared to the cost of pollution emitted from the Rotenberg coal-fired power plant that operates with facilities to reduce emissions.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection updates today (Monday) that it will not renew the emission permit for the polluting steam units at the Eshkol power plant in Ashdod, in light of the pollution and health damage they produce, and will demand that the current operation of these 4 electricity generation units cease in September 2023, as the Ministry stated in the emission permit . In addition, the ministry will not approve the operation of these units in 2022 beyond what is required for the survival of the system.
Simultaneously with the activities of the joint team established for the issue of air quality in Ashdod, the Ministry of Environmental Protection informed Dr. Yehiel Lesri, the mayor of Ashdod, and the Union of Cities of Ashdod Habel Yavne of its decisions.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection emphasizes that in all the work and examinations it has carried out, it is clear that a rapid transition to electricity production based on renewable energies combined with distributed energy storage facilities is the way to lower electricity costs, prevent air pollution, increase energy security and the reliability of electricity supply.
- The refusal of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to continue operating the polluting units in 2022, in light of the Electricity Authority’s data according to which these units are not necessary for the survival of the system in the coming months:
In 2016, in order to reduce air pollution to the minimum necessary to maintain the reliability of the electricity supply, and after discussions on the matter with the ministries of energy and finance, the Ministry of Environmental Protection established a limit of hours in the emission permit which will expire in September 2023. At the same time, the ministry demanded that until the end of the permit period, 7 years, the Ministry of Energy and the Electricity Authority will work to realize other alternatives.Since 2016, almost 7 years have passed during which the Electricity Authority should have promoted alternative solutions for these units or instructed the Electric Company to install mitigation measures in the cluster, so that these units would meet the BAT requirements – but none of this happened.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection demanded from the electric company that these units be operated as a last resort after the operation of the other less polluting production units.
According to the law, the conditions in the emission permits are determined according to the best available technique as stipulated in the European regulation – and the steam production units in the cluster do not meet these conditions.In the permits, a number of arrangements were established that determine the rules for the continuation of the operation of power plants that did not comply with the best available technique at the time. Some of these arrangements established a limit of hours or days of operation, as in the Eshkol power plant and the Orot Rabin power plant.
In the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, the electric company requested to increase the hours of operation by 2,000 hours each year, claiming that this is necessary for the “survival” of the electricity system. The ministry approved these requests after it was presented with information that there is a concern for the electricity supply if this extension of the operating hours is not carried out.
After the spot and emergency approval in 2022, of 2,000 hours, the electric company initially requested 10,000 additional operating hours and then 4,000 under the same claim of “system survivability”. The Ministry of Environmental Protection demanded to receive information that proves that there may indeed be harm to survival. This information was not forwarded to the office in time, and as he announced, he decided on August 31 not to approve overtime.Recently, the Electricity Authority provided information which shows that a total of 160 hours are required to maintain the system’s survival and the reliability of the electricity supply – and not thousands of hours, as initially claimed. And for that reason, the ministry refuses to approve any additional operating hours for these units and insists that there will be no unnecessary pollution.
Another argument put forward by the Electricity Authority is that it is possible to achieve savings for the electricity sector of 250 million shekels as a result of operating these polluting units instead of more expensive units that operate on coal and diesel. In the data submitted later by the Electricity Authority, it is claimed that the savings are NIS 240 million. According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the assumptions in this calculation are incorrect, in particular due to the double calculation of savings.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection corrected these assumptions, so that the savings are NIS 137 million at most, and it is possible that in practice savings will be lower than that, partly in light of the drop in coal prices. In addition, the cost of local air pollution from increased emissions of nitrogen oxides and fine respirable particles must be taken into account, amounting to approximately NIS 172 million per year.
- The refusal of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to the request to operate the steam units after September 2023:
Upon inspection of the application and completion documents, it was found that for the converted steam units 6, 7, 8 and 9, the documents submitted in the application are significantly missing and do not include essential information that is at the heart of an application for an emission permit and is required by law, regulations and guidelines.In the documents, there is no compliance with the best available technique for these units, for which approximately 8,000 hours of operation per year are requested until 2026 – at a time when it was made clear several times starting with the granting of the permit in 2016 that the units would not be able to continue working without compliance with the best available technique. Therefore, the Ministry will refuse the request for a permit for these units after September 2023, and calls on the Electricity Authority and all the agencies to prepare for this.