Some 60 miners started a protest march of some 320 km, on Monday, April 11. They will walk all the way from Targu Jiu to Bucharest to protest against the bad situation at energy producer Complexul Energetic Oltenia and ask for its salvation. Their journey should take about eight days.

“We want to make people aware of what happens in the energy market, of the primary and secondary legislation on this market. The current legislation makes us, lignite energy producers, take out the lignite, process it, carry it, turn it into electricity in power plants, inject it into the network and take RON 0.17 per kilowatt-hour while people at home pay RON 60 per kilowatt-hour, nearly 70% of the price going into the smart guys’ pockets,” union leader Dumitru Parvulescu told local Mediafax.

While in Bucharest, the miners will stop at the Government where they will submit a memorandum and the signatures they plan to gather for Complexul Energetic Oltenia’s salvation.

They will also organize a protest in front of the Government, against the announced 2,000 layoffs at Complexul Energetic Oltenia. The energy producer is in a difficult financial situation, after two years of losses.

The other big thermal electricity producer in Romania, Complexul Energetic Hunedoara, which produces electricity using superior coal extracted from mines in the Valea Jiului area, went into insolvency at the beginning of this year.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com