Preservation
of Electric Power Industry of Serbia, modernization and strengthening of all
production capacities, mines, thermal and hydro power plants in order for EPS
to remain a safe harbour for development of Serbian economy in the coming years
is the policy of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and EPS consistently
implements that policy. Everyone who respects EPS and Serbia and many people
from EPS have asked me to make sure that EPS delivers what Kolubara has already
delivered, and that is why my obligation on behalf of all of them is to express
my gratitude to the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić for all the support
and all the strategy that we managed to implement in EPS in the past five
years, and in the past nine years when it comes to Kolubara, and to provide
further support for the preservation of EPS - Milorad Grčić, acting director of
EPS, told the members of the Supervisory Board of PE EPS at the presentation of
implemented and planned activities of PE EPS with regard to energy crisis.
Grčić
pointed out that those who wanted to shut down mines and thermal power plants
do not wish EPS and Serbia well, instead they want Serbia to become dependent
country when it comes to energy. As Grčić explained, those people had the plan
to shut down units A1 and A2 in TENT A and two units of TPP "Kostolac",
with a total capacity of 660 megawatts, and we can only ask ourselves how we
would be able to operate nowadays without those units.
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President of Serbia is a visionary, he did not allow mines and thermal power
plants to be shut down and he was afraid that energy crisis of this magnitude
might become possible. That is why EPS is today fully preserved, and we even
managed to save all the non-core companies that someone separated from EPS in
2003 and 2004, and thus started fragmentation and showed clear intentions to
sell EPS as well - said Grčić. - The goal is to have a greater number of
megawatts in five years, both in thermal and RES sectors, and when the
percentages are improved, the ratio should not be 70:30, but 60:40. Our
citizens enjoy the cheapest electricity price in the region; enough of it is
being generated and we do not intend to increase the price at the moment.
Head
of EPS emphasized that in the last five years EUR 2.36 billion have been
invested in rehabilitations and modernizations with an increase in TPPs and
HPPs capacities; facilities and systems for environmental protection have been
built; rehabilitations, modernizations and procurements of new mining equipment
were done at existing mines; new production capacities are being built. Capacity
of TPP units has been increased by 180 megawatts, and when everything that is
planned has been completed, capacity of the TPP will be higher by approximately
225 megawatts, with a total investment of EUR 1.3 billion.
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Environmental protection is a priority and EPS coal-fired TPP will be in full
harmonization with European directives and standards by 2027. EUR 600 million
has been approximately invested so far, and investments worth EUR 700 million
are planned for 2032 - Grčić explained. - We have built desulfurization plant
in Kostolac. We found project draft in TENT A in a drawer and with the help of
the President of Serbia, negotiations and construction regarding this project
were initiated, which is now in its final stage. We are building the same
facility in TENT B.
Grčić
presented the most important mining projects in Kolubara Mining Basin and at
Drmno mine that have been completed, and highlighted the project of opening
Radljevo mine, and this project has been waiting for realization since 1976. He
pointed out that this project was launched owing to the support of Aleksandar
Vučić, as well as that the attitude of the President of Serbia was important
for the construction of unit B3 in Kostolac, which should be put into operation
in 2023.
-
We want to continue the construction of TPP "Kolubara B", with a
capacity of 350 megawatts, which began in the eighties, because the foundations
and part of the equipment already exist. We will continue to fight for the
construction of this unit - said Grčić. - I am also proud that we are working
outside the borders of Serbia. We are currently working on the project of the
Gornja Drina system, which consists of HPP Buk Bijela, Foča and Paunci, with a
capacity of 181 megawatts and a value of approximately EUR 250 million. EPS is
not against green energy, on the contrary, we are building solar power plants
and wind farms. The plan is to have 240 megawatts in solar power plants
and 100 megawatts in wind farms by 2030. EPS is also modernizing HPPs,
hydro sector capacity has increased by 142 megawatts with the rehabilitation
being completed, and after the completion of all planned rehabilitation, the
capacity will be further increased by a total of 190 megawatts. Rehabilitation
of HPP Đerdap 1 being almost completed, we are also going to rehabilitate the
whole of Đerdap 2.
Grčić
pointed out that the electricity consumption on the commercial market is
already growing, new plants and factories are being opened. Consumption on the
commercial market has increased by as much as 13 percent in the last four
years.
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EPS is proud of its results. In the last four years, our business operations
gained us nothing but profit. No one can tell us that we are losing money,
simply because that is not true. Numbers tell the whole story. Our profit in
the first half of this year alone is almost RSD 11.5 billion. Our balance of
electricity import-export is very good. Between 2016 and 2021, EPS has sold
approximately 4 TWh of electricity more than it has bought on the open
market, and we are talking of EUR 110 million of profit – Grčić said.
