Serbia: Russian & Chinese influence in energy sector investment projects

Published on 26. December 2014., News Serbia Energy

GazpromNeft owned company Oil Industry of Serbia NIS Energowind, NIS daughter company, will sign a memorandum on cooperation with the Chinese company Gold wind for the delivery of wind turbines for a wind farm Plandiste, announced Deputy Energy Minister Milos Banjac.

On the economic panel within Forth Economic Forum China and 16 SEE countries he said that a significant aid in this work would also represent loan support of China’s EXIM Bank, which will grant a loan worth 225 million dollars to NIS, and that a wind farm will have power of 102 megawatts.

Banjac said that wind energy in Serbia was not sufficiently exploited, but that he hopes that the state incentives will be better utilized in the further development of this sector.

In this regard, he expressed his belief that Serbia would be able to achieve the goal to increase the production from renewable electricity to 27 percent by 2020th, instead of 21.2, as much is now. Banjac said that from renewable energy sources Serbia currently uses the most wood biomass and small watercourses, in an amount of about one million tones of oil equivalent.

Serbia uses only about one-third of the potentials of renewable energy sources, especially unused is the wind and sun potential, said Banjac. He announced that the Serbian energy development strategy until 2025th would be adopted by the end of this year, which will contribute to the increase of the energy security in Serbia.

Serbia will adopt a new law on energy by the end of this year, which is very important because any investment cannot be implemented without adequate legislative framework, announced the State Secretary in the Ministry of Mining and Energy Mirjana Filipovic.

As the most important investment for Serbia in the energy sector she indicated the construction of a new thermal unit in Kostolac with the help of Chinese partners, and pointed out the necessity of project implementation of the thermal power plant Nikola Tesla B3 and hydro power plant Djerdap 3.

Filipovic stressed that it is important to work on regional networking in the electricity transport, in particular through Trans-Balkan corridor project, by which the electricity will be transmitted from parts of the region which have electricity surplus to neighboring countries that do not have enough power.

She pointed out that Serbia plans to open soon the stock electricity exchange in Belgrade.

EPS Director Aleksandar Obradovic pointed out the necessity of regional energy cooperation, adding that he expects even better cooperation of Serbia in the field of energy with China.

He noted that EPS was the leading electricity company in Serbia, which has successfully passed through the first two rounds of the electricity market liberalization, and that from the beginning of 2015th, when that market would be completely open to fight for every electricity customer in Serbia.

On the other hand, EPS obligations are also to be a stable revenues source for the Serbian budget, which represents an additional challenge for the company because at the same time there are big pressures to increase electricity production in Serbia from renewable energy sources rather than from thermal power plants.