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All production capacities of Elektroprivreda Srbije have
stable operation, and the system is intensively and timely being prepared for
the winter season. Overhauls began after the end of the heating season and we
carefully planned and did everything taking into account the increasing
consumption demands during the summer – said Mr. Dušan Živković, General
Manager of Elektroprivreda Srbije in the Morning News of the Radio Television
of Serbia.
He pointed out that major overhauls have been
completed, and the major overhaul of unit A6 and the second phase of rehabilitation
of the Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant Bajina Bašta are ongoing. This creates
the conditions for the system to be fully ready for this winter season, and
with the completely rehabilitated Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant Bajina Bašta,
considerable security of our power system is ensured. Coal reserves at the coal
stocks in thermal power plants reach 1.85 million tons, and the goal is to increase
them to 2 million tons in the coming period, and despite the drought, the
reserves in the reservoirs are at 75 percent of capacity.
The head of EPS pointed out that the company recorded
a profit for the third year in a row and that it was crucial that continuous
production and financial stability was provided, and that part of the profit
was redirected to investments.
- This year, for the first time, EPS will not go into
any debt, it will finance everything from its own funds, and one of the big
investments is the improvement of the mining sector and the construction of
several systems that should create conditions for opening of the Radljevo mine.
We have neither gone into debt nor we will go into debt, and we are financing
coal production projects from our own funds – said Mr. Živković.
He also emphasized that the preparation and
installation of the system for opening the Radljevo mine in full capacity are
ongoing.
- Just now we can see the outlines of dumpers, excavators,
and conveyor belts on the assembly site. We expect these machines to start
mining by the end of the year and to start contributing to the production of
overburden and coal at the beginning of next year – said Mr. Živković. - The Solar
Power Plant Petka has been in trial operation for a month, and we are in the
final phase for commissioning of the wind farm in Kostolac, with a capacity of
66 MW. In the next thirty days, the first megawatt-hour of this wind farm
should appear on the grid. Long-term investments, such as the Pumped Storage
HPP Bistrica, the 1 GW solar project, are in the phase of document preparation
and creation of conditions for them to be on the grid in the medium term.
Regarding
the Report of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Živković also mentioned that
the IMF Report implies providing the development of the transmission and
distribution network and the prevailing income will go to the companies
Elektromreža Srbije and Elektrodistribucija Srbije, while the production price
of kilowatt-hour related to EPS remains the same.
- EPS is the holder of the process and will formally
initiate the procedure to the Energy Agency - said Mr. Živković.
Regarding the digitalization of customer services, the
General Manager of EPS explained that in the past two years, a number of new
services have been introduced, such as application, e-bill, SAP billing. The
goal is to improve business and the relationship with the consumer and, as Mr. Živković
said, it is going well.
The EPS application called View Your Bill is
used by about 917,000 people, and almost 300,000 citizens have switched to the
e-bill.
