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TEŠ had been trying for some time to find buyers for some of the electricity it produces. When the management of the power plant finally found some, it did not inform its parent, HSE. The reason was apparently that TEŠ is forced to sell all its electricity to the holding, which buys it at prices that are 10 percent below market prices. For TEŠ, that means a revenue loss of EUR 20 m per year. Only HSE as the parent company is authorized to sell the electricity its subsidiaries produce to distributors and other users.

Uroš Rotnik, the CEO of TEŠ, explained that in order to realize its investment plans the power plant needs these funds. By selling its electricity to HSE below market prices, TEŠ is forced to do business at a loss. Yet TEŠ has taken out a EUR 350 m loan to finance the upgrading and expansion of its generating capacity. The construction of the sixth bloc of the power plant will cost EUR 800 m and the management of TEŠ is worried that it will not be able to service its debt in the future.

HSE is a government-owned holding and the plans to upgrade TEŠ have been adopted by the government. Some observers and members of parliament from the region are already asking why the government is allowing its own plans to secure the energy supply to Slovenian industry and households to be jeopardized.