Hunedoara Energy Complex

This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Download full dataset

Report an error

Sub-articles:

Global coal mines Coal mines in China Coal mines in India Coal mines in the United States Coal mines in Australia Coal mines in Russia Coal mines in Indonesia

Related-articles:

Largest coal mines in the world Coal mine impacts from Covid-19 Environmental issues of coal Coal mining Coal reserves Coal terminals

Hunedoara Energy Complex is an operating coal mine in Petroșani, Transylvania, Romania.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Hunedoara Energy Complex	Petroșani, Transylvania, Romania	45.436597, 23.375229 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Loading map...

{"type":"SATELLITE","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"600px","height":"500px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":16,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":45.436597,"lon":23.375229,"icon":"","inlineLabel":"Operating Mine\n"}]}

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–		2032

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
0.3	0.2	2022	Underground	–	–	494*	2000

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
–	–	–	–	Subbituminous	Thermal	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Complexul Energetic Valea Jiului SA	Minisrty of Energy of Romania	Romania

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

Note: The asterisk (*) indicates that the value is an estimated figure based on various factors, including the company's forecasted or reported monthly or quarterly production data, etc.

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Saleable	0.588	0.538	0.41	0.428	0.25	0.2	0.3*

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker April 2024 release and the September and December supplements.

Background

The Hunedoara Energy Complex is a network of underground coal mines and power plants in the Jiu Valley, Petroșani, Romania. Hunedoara Energy Complex was owned by Complexul Energetic Hunedoara S.A, in insolvency since 2019. (A notice on the CEH company website stated that the complex is insolvent and undergoing collections: "Company “in insolvency”, according to the civil Sentence no. 601/F dated 14.11.2019, pronounced in the file no. 5075/97/2016 ordering the opening of the general insolvency procedure against the debtor Societatea Complexul Energetic Hunedoara SA.").

In October 2023, the company transferred its assets to the Ministry of Energy. It appeared that the mining assets were subsequently transferred under the ownership of a newly created entity Complexul Energetic Valea Jiului SA, owned by the Ministry of Energy. It was anticipated that 2000 of the remaining workers will be employed by the new company and state aid will be provided.

Hunedoara Energy Complex consists of four underground mines: Lonea, Livezeni, Vulcan and Lupeni.

As of 2022, the complex was responsible for less than 1% of the country's power, down from 2% previously. The complex supplies coal to the Paroseni power station. Coal was also previously fed the Mintia-Deva power station until the plant entered insolvency proceedings in 2019 and was shut down in 2021.

In November 2016, the European Commission approved state aid to close Lonea and Lupeni coal mines - first in 2018, then in 2020 and 2021, but the deadlines were not met. The Lonea and Lupeni sections have been deemed "uncompetitive mines" and were then scheduled for permanent closure in 2023-2024. The remaining two mines are due to close by 2030-2032.

As of 2022, the four mines were said to be producing a combined total of 1,000-1,100 tonnes of coal per day (up from 600-700 daily tonnes), used for the operation of the Paroşeni thermal power plant.

In 2023, it was reported that the closure of Lonea and Lupeni requires extensive safety work to avoid self-ignition and therefore, actions to secure the deposit will be carried out until 31 December 2024, followed by the final closure and land greening works in 2025-2026.

In November 2024, it was reported that the European Commission has approved, under EU state aid rules, a grant worth EUR 790 million to cover the exceptional costs related to the closure and safekeeping of four uncompetitive coal mines in the Jiu Valley (Lonea, Lupeni, Livezeni and Vulcan). The measures cover (i) the social costs for workers who have lost or will lose their jobs due to the closure of the mines and (ii) the costs related to the safety and rehabilitation works necessary for the closure of the four mines, in particular those concerning the measures necessary to secure the mine shafts, repair the environmental damage caused by mining and the land reclamation after the closure of the four mines. This aid covers eligible costs incurred in the period from 1 October 2023 to 31 December 2032.

As per the company's website, it must comply with GEO 108/2022, regarding the decarbonization of the energy sector, which establishes that Lupeni and Lonea deposits are safely closed off until December 31, 2026, and the Livezeni and Vulcan mines until December 31, 2032.

The found underground mines exceed the methane emissions limit set by the new EU rules. However, according to Ember's report, even as hard coal production from the country’s state-owned mines lacks transparency and is not fully reported to the EU, these mines will be required to implement mitigation measures to avoid penalties. As these mines age, coal is extracted at greater depths and more of the coal seam is disturbed, resulting in greater methane emissions per tonne of coal mined. Studies from Romania’s INSEMEX found that the amount of methane per tonne of coal in three of the Jiu Valley’s underground mines rose over time.

Incidents

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.