Serbia is very unsafe country when it comes to energy. We haven’t built any energy facility in 30 years and we are five times less efficient in energy sector than EU, especially in distribution where we lose up to 63% of produced energy- Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic stated on Kopaonik Business Forum.
The solution to the problem is in the construction of new capacities she announced.
-We’ll build HPP Bistrica, where project carrier will be Canadian partners which are certain for signing a contract. They are also interested in Brodarevo 1 and 2 but it isn’t excluded that other companies will participate in certain parts. We negotiate with China and United Emirates about Djerdap 3. TPP Stavalj near Sjenica will also be constructed- Minister announced.
According to her words, energy agreement with Italians is in progress but we must find a way to conclude contracts after tenders. “We had tenders for Kolubara B and we don’t have signed a contract with EPS yet. We’ll have some tenders for small HPPs and TPP Novi Sad and the attitude for Kolubara B will also be known”, Mihajlovic said.
As she emphasized, Ministry prepares a strategy for energy development until 2025 where priorities are security increase, energy market opening, construction of new capacities, turning to green economy and use of renewable energy sources. According to her words, energy license has been issued in agreement with Minister and it could be prolonged as much as Minister wanted until few months ago and energy approval was being given in unlimited period so nobody can take license or approval from investor.
-Hundreds of licenses happened to be issued and only six small HPPs were built- Mihajlovic said. This is changed now so approvals can be withdrawn if investor does not acquire everything required. Office for expedited agreements was formed, too. Number of licenses for small HPPs will be decreased from 27 to 5-7. License will be issued in 60 days, not for two and a half year like it has been so far.
-Our public companies are in huge financial and energy problems, especially EPS and Srbijagas. Therefore, we launched privatization in EPS because our target is EPS to be competitive with other players and not to be a monopolist. We are planning the same thing with Srbijagas. Reconstruction plan will be adopted soon and secondary activities in this company will be canceled and companies will have only their primary activities- Minister says.
She analyzed the problems in heating energy production, too because there are 58 heating plants, 40 to 55 years old, in Serbia. They are working on gas, coal and crude oil and they have huge losses in energy production.
-Our plan is to change fuel for most of plants in next couple of years, not to use crude oil and to use biomass which is all over Serbia. Why to produce only heating energy when they can also produce electricity and to improve its efficiency this way which is 40% at the moment. Energy efficiency of cogeneration plants is up to 95%. This can give us energy much faster than big infrastructure projects- Mihajlovic says.
Source Serbia Energy/Agencies
