Congratulations to Kostolac OCM Drmno miners who broke daily record on Saturday and produced 34,000 tons of coal and thus exceeded daily plan by more than 13 percent. Without coal and thermal power plants we wouldn't have electricity, it's owing to you that today in difficult conditions each house has electricity and each factory can work. It's up to us to invest in the future, to develop new capacities, and thank the miners in Kostolac and Kolubara and the people working in thermal power plants – said Mr. Aleksandar Vučić, President of Serbia, who visited Kostolac thermal power plants and open cast mines, Electric Power Industry of Serbia branch on St. Nicholas Day.
Mr. Vučić made a tour of TPP – OCM Kostolac branch and had conversations with the employees, and Ms. Zorana Mihajlović, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mining and Energy, Mr. Milorad Grčić, PE EPS Acting Director, Ms. Jelena Matejić, EMS Director, Mr. Bojan Atlagić, Acting Director of Electrodistribucija Srbije, and EPS executive directors visited the plant as well. The President of Serbia highlighted that that around 3,000 tons of coal of the highest quality was ensured to arrive every day in TENT from Kostolac, and that mining of around 75,000 tons in Kolubara and its transport to TENT had been previously agreed.
Mr. Miroslav Tomašević, EPS Executive Director for Electricity Generation, presented operational results of FGD plant in TPP Kostolac B, which operates successfully, and sulphur-dioxide emissions in the air comply with legal standards, as well as ecological projects that are being implemented in Kostolac at the moment. The President of Serbia also said that Kostolac was important since a new unit B3 was being built after three decades.
- It will be a unit with installed capacity of 350 MW and with the completion of the unit B3, we will largely enhance our power capacities. We expect the commissioning of this unit by the end of 2023 or in the beginning of 2024 – said Mr. Vučić
Upon entering the thermal power plant, the President of Serbia was welcomed by the miners, to whom he brought cakes and food for the patron saint's feast, and Mr. Vučić said during the conversation with the miners that a while ago, everybody had said that the miners would depose someone in the state, but now the situation changed and he was the one supporting the miners. Mr. Vučić highlighted that the previous day around 500 connections were without power, which was at the level of statistical error and almost three times less than last year on the Saint Nichola's Day, and added that the process of defects repair was ongoing.
- My congratulations to the people in Elektrodistribucija, EPS and EMS. The citizens have good electricity supply at the same price, which is, excluding Ukraine and Georgia, the lowest price in Europe, while the salaries in Serbia are not the lowest at the moment – said Mr. Vučić. – Electricity consumption on Saturday, 18th December, was 116,830 MWh and we succeeded to produce almost 99,000 MWh. Six days ago, the situation was bad as we produced then only 70,000 MWh. Working days are a problem because of strong industry and we will surely supersede 130,000 MWh, since our goal is to increase our production.
The President of Serbia pointed out that in an important part of Europe a total chaos is yet to come, which could be recognized by the prices of raw materials and energy-generating products at all exchanges.
- Serbia will manage to get out of this situation, I don't want to speak as a winner, but we are coming out of all of this in a such way that ordinary people literally don't feel a thing – said Mr. Vučić. - Our industry is a great consumer of both electricity and gas, proving the progress Serbia has achieved to this day. Today, the share of industry in electricity consumption is 50 percent, while by 2012, it was 29 percent. Only that is enough to realize how many factories we have built and how much the industry has progressed.
