The Crivina Power Station () was a large

thermal power plant A thermal power station, also known as a thermal power plant, is a type of power station in which the heat energy generated from various fuel sources (e.g., coal, natural gas, nuclear fuel, etc.) is converted to electrical energy. The heat ...

located in Crivina, near

Anina Anina (; German: ''Steierdorf''; Hungarian: ''Stájerlakanina'') is a town in the Banat region of Romania, in Caraș-Severin County, with a population of 5,521 in 2021. The town administers one village, Steierdorf (German: ''Steierdorf'', Hunga ...

Caraș-Severin County Caraș-Severin () is a county ( județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia. The majority of its territory lies within the historical region of Banat, with a few northeastern villages considered part of Transylvania. The county seat is Reșița ...

. It had three generating units of 330 MW each, altogether having a total

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

generating capacity of 990 MW. It was intended to be the first

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich Granularity, fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of Organic compound, organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general compos ...

power station built in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. The total cost of the

power plant was around US$1 billion. The Crivina Power Station was supplied with 4 million tonnes of

per year from the nearby

Anina Mine Anina Coal Mine is an Underground mining (soft rock), underground mine that is now closed. It was one of the largest mines in Romania. It is located in South-Western Romania, in Anina, Caraș-Severin County in the historical Banat region. The mine ...

History

This power plant works only for 76 hours in reality. At the beginning of the 1970s

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

, then President of Romania, decided to build a large

thermal power station A thermal power station, also known as a thermal power plant, is a type of power station in which the heat energy generated from various fuel sources (e.g., coal, natural gas, nuclear fuel, etc.) is converted to electrical energy. The heat ...

to exploit the large oil shale deposits located in the area. At first the power station was intended to be built in Ticvaniu Mic commune, now part of the

Ticvaniu Mare Ticvaniu Mare (; ) is a commune in Caraș-Severin County, western Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hun ...

commune, near Oraviţa but the chosen site had a very small water supply that was not sufficient for the power station. In 1976 a new location was found at Crivina, located in the mountains near

. In 1983 the construction of the power station was complete and the first 330 MW electric power generation unit was put online. The turbine could not reach its highest potential capacity due to the low quality of the

deposits. The communist regime also built a town that was used to house the power station's workers. It was intended to have 10,000 inhabitants, and a part of Anina had to move to this new location to make way for oil shale surface mines. The first of the three power generation units was completed in 1983, and in 1984 generated its first electricity from burning oil shale. The unit functioned only around 2000 hours per year between 1984 and 1988 until it was shut down, its main generator having broken down and was sent to Bucharest for repairs, only for it to be sent to Rovinari in 1990. Eventually between 2003 and 2009, most of the power station was demolished and slowly sold for scrap. The station also had a tall

flue gas stack A flue-gas stack, also known as a smoke stack, chimney stack or simply as a stack, is a type of chimney, a vertical pipe, channel or similar structure through which flue gases are exhausted to the outside air. Flue gases are produced when coal, oi ...

that was at the time Romania's second tallest.

References

{{Power stations in Romania Former power stations in Romania Oil shale-fired power stations in Romania