EDP signs the Fair Transition Agreement for thermal power plants

Wednesday 24, March 2021
Corporate

The company, the Government and the trade unions will elaborate agreements that enable to anticipate the impact that will entail the plants’ closure and suggest alternatives for them.

EDP has signed the Agreement for a Fair Energy Transition for its coal thermal power plants with the Government and the trade unions. The main goal of this agreement is the maintenance and creation of activity and employment in the areas where the facilities are located, and therefore, the Fair Transition Agreements will be elaborated to enable to go ahead the impact that the closure will imply.

The agreement has been signed in Madrid by the Fourth Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera; the Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz; the Secretary General of UGT FICA, Pedro Hojas; the Secretary General of CCOO Industry, Agustín Martín; and the CEO of EDP Spain, Rui Teixeira.

In order to maintain and create activity and employment, the agreements should facilitate the accompaniment of sectors and groups at risk, the fixing of population in rural territories and the promotion of a diversification and coherent specialization in the socioeconomic context. The resources of the area where the plants are located will be thus harnessed and investments attracted, promoting industrial alternatives linked to energy transition.

EDP has four installations of coal generation in Spain: Aboño, Soto de Ribera, Puente Nuevo y Los Barrios. The company has already requested the closure of three of them, except Aboño, but this installation is equally affected by the context of plants’ closure and participates in the goals of fair transition.

The company keeps a strong commitment with energy transition and supports the reduction of CO2 emission in a context of Fair Transition. For that matter, and just as its Strategic Plan 2021-2025 contemplates, EDP will stop producing coal as early as 2025 and will turn into the first 100% green utility in 2030.

These ambitious projects require the development of alternative projects in which EDP is working, as the leading company of energy transition. These are initiatives that ensure local development, boost the economy and create quality employment.

These projects are part of the EDP’s support plan that has included this Fair Transition Agreement. Furthermore, the company considers plans of outplacing their own workers; prioritization of companies’ employees who collaborate in activities related with the new suggested activities, and the dismantling and restoration of the plants; with support in the proactive search of investors and the participation in the elaboration of transition agreements; and the collaboration in the support plan for professional training and labor integration to ensure an improvement of employability.