The Government of Montenegro will not prolong cooperation with Italian A2A after March 31st, in case the company doesn’t support the development program of Electric Power Industry of Montenegro EPCG, announced the Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.
Djukanovic said that they will wait for the company A2A to declare in due time, whether they are ready to participate in the realization of the second block of thermal power plant (TPP) Pljevlja.
“In all previous conversations we told them very explicitly, that this is a requirement for our further cooperation. Our contract expires on March 31st, and we want for A2Ato continue its participation in the management of EPCG and to remain state’spartner in that business”, he said.
However, a prerequisite for this is, as he said, is the consensus on the realization of development projects. “If A2A, for any reason,refuses to support such development program of EPCG, then certainly we will not prolong our cooperation, and instead we will already on April 1st organize ourselves and, with our domestic capacity,start the realization of this indisputably development project in the energy sector”, said Djukanovic.
According to his words, the projected deadline for construction is three years. “Our TPP is at the end of its resources. In addition, there are strict environmental criteria that must be fulfilled,since they were prescribed by the European energy community of which we are a member,” said the prime minister. It, as he reminded, stipulated that the TPPs that don’t meet these strict environmental criteria can operated from January 1st, 2018, maximally for another 20.000 hours. “So, after January 1st, 2018 TPP can operate for another three years at longest”, Djukanovic said, adding that there is no doubt that the second block is needed as soon as possible and that it would be optimal if it could be completed by that time.
