From May15th, when an emergency was declared due to severe floods in Serbia until the beginning of July, Electric Power Industry of Serbia has imported 488 kilowatt-hours of electricity in the amount of 20 MEUR. Therehardly was any import before the emergency, because winter was not cold and there was no need for that.
However, the EPS flooding capacity for the electricity production and coal have caused the increasedelectricityimport in orderto allow the normal supply of consumers. Another reason why EPS imports large quantities at this momentis that it is cheaper during the summer. Now the electricity can be found at a price of 46 to 47 EUR per megawatt hour, while in the winter it can reach a price of 80 to 100 EUR. The EPSaim is to make the coal reservesduring the winter from which it is produced 70 percent of electricity. In fact, it is well known that a large number of citizens in Serbia heated by electricityand itsconsumption is much higherin the winter, and it should provide sufficient coalquantities in order to reduce the possible electricity import during this period at the lowest possible extent.
The Fields “E” and “D” in the mining basin “Kolubara” are revitalized and theyproduce 45,000 tons of coal per day, and it is expected that by the second half of August will start production in the mine “Veliki Crljeni” with capacity of 20,000 tons of coal per day. In this way, the daily output of 65,000 tons would provide about 70 percent of coal for electric power system of Serbia.
In EPS state that the potentially increase in the electricity price could partially compensated this company costs for recovery of damages that flooding have caused and request for price increase has not yet been submitted to the authorities of the Energy Agency. In the best case, it would be only one-half of the neededmoney. “The request for price increase will be used only as the last measure to maintain the stability of the power system after the preliminary assessment how much of the funds will be utilized from the donors’ conference, help of other countries governments and the state of Serbia”, say in EPS.
Damage of 180 MEUR
The floods have caused direct damage at the facilities, especially in the mining sector, and therefore the Electric Power Industry of Serbia will have to set aside money for reconstruction and investment necessary to restore the capacities. A large part of the equipment is still under water, but now the damage is estimated at around 180 MEUR.
