The liberalization of the electricity market in the medium voltage grid is accessed as required by law, organizationally and technically everything is ready, said the Deputy Minister of Energy Dejan Trifunovic. Organizationally, technically and regulatory everything is ready, we are doing the coordination since August, but we have a segment of customers who are not adequately prepared – Trifunovic confirmed.
He also said that the problems in the process, starting from 1 January, will be with about 300 subjects and each department must take responsibility.
He said that Serbia accepted international obligations that it must act responsibly in accordance with it and that it has entered into this process with a lot of dedication.
– You do not need to look negatively on the process of liberalization, it will happen also in the neighboring states with clearly limited deadlines, and there was plenty of time to prepare – encouraged Trifunovic.
He noted that the energy will be a major driver of investment in the future and that it will not be consisted only of Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) but several energy companies and new investors who will come to ensure the growth of the whole system.
He said that EPS should not be afraid of market liberalization, because this year it has achieved good production.
Dragoslav Ljubicic from the Union of Shift Workers of TENT said that it is important to clarify what is meant by liberalization of the electricity market and what it takes for the state to do, what laws to adopt in order to comply with the signing of energy agreements on accession to the Energy Community of South East Europe .
He pointed out that the manner in which the maintenance of productive capacity in EPS is now lead is problematic, and he wondered “whether the capacities in 2015 will be ready and will they guarantee the tolerable competition”.
He said that EPS is already in the market game in liberalization of the market, and when it comes to high voltage, it lost three percent of the market.
He said that there are no problems in production, but the level of investment in maintenance capacity is six times smaller than in the previous year and to plan operations EPS for next year has not yet adopted.
Problems, and the consequences of that, he said, will not be felt next year, but could be in 2015 or 2016.
Ljubicic said that the trade union is asking for the dismissal of the current acting director of EPS Aleksandar Obradovic, as well as to elect a new director as soon as possible, because, he said, “he refuses to talk with the union of shift workers, behaves liberal and he has a bad corporate behavior”.
Member of the Council of the Agency for Energy Ljiljana Hadzibabic said that about 70 suppliers of electricity is licensed, and that 30 of them are active in it.
Speaking of what is needed to prepare the system for the free market, she said that it is necessary to collect data for the operation, to provide an information system, consumption profiles and measuring devices.
Chairman of the Board of EPS Aca Markovic said that EPS produced 37 billion kilowatt hours of electricity this year. Speaking on the liberalization of the market, he said that EPS will have to go out on “competition” and that it will always be able to have a cost price that is competitive with other manufacturers.
Source; Serbia Energy
