From January 1, 2013, the substations of the 110/h kilovolts, which, up to now, have been in the transmission system of the PE “Elektromreža Srbije”, will become part of the distribution system of the PE “Electric Power Industry of Serbia” and public distribution companies of EPS will take care of them, as referred to in the Article 308 of the Energy Law. All the technical questions concerning the takeover are solved during these almost two years of preparations of the demarcation of the transmission and distribution system in Serbia, especially in the last few months, when the Joint Commission of EMS and EPS, with the help of the studies and consulting services of the Belgrade Institute, removed the ambiguities step by step. The final solution is that, on the verge of the upcoming year, the public companies of EPS for the distribution will take over from the “Electric Network of Serbia” total amount of 53 TC 110/h kV and 65 employed managers, which completes the whole distribution system of EPS on the 110 kV voltage.
Contracts about to be signed
General Directors of EMS and EPS, just over a month ago, have formed a committee for handing over or taking over of the substations 110 so that the reports on the state of the substations are completed by the mid-December, models on the exploitation agreement are made, as well as the models on the Protocol of the takeover. Nebojša Petrović, President of the EMS Commission, says that, by the end of the December or beginning of January, the contractual relationships between EMS and PC EC should be defined as they won’t be able to independently take care of the maintenance of high voltage equipment in these facilities. He notes that the property rights and economic and financial issues will be solved by changing of the founding acts of PE EMS and PE EPS. However, as lawyers interpret the law, it will not be quite as simple as in solving the technical issues.
Radovan Stanić, President of EPS Commission for the transfer, is confident that the taking over of the “substations 110” will be done in a given time period, that it will go just fine and that there will be no disturbance of safety and reliability in the supply of the customers with electric power.
– Simply, no physical change will be felt, only the part of the responsibility for 110 KV substations will be transferred from EMS the EPS or to its distribution companies – points out Mr. Stanić.
Mr. Nenad Mraković, from EPS, one of the managers of the previous joint working group of the EMS and EPS, explained that only the company ED, which are qualified for that, such as the EDB and much of the “Electro Serbia”, will take over the control of the “substations 110” starting from the New year, and that the rest will remain under responsibility of the EMS, as long as distributors are not well prepared for this job. The goal is, as he points out, to also enable the ED by the end of 2013 for management and monitoring over these facilities. Another manager of the joint group, Gojko Dotlić, MSc. from the EMS, draws attention that, in the final consideration of the solution, it turned out that EMS, despite the good will, would not be able to realize the maintenance of the taken over facilities without billing invoices. Such coorporation interfered with the Law on Public Procurement and value added tax for services rendered. Nevertheless, he believes that an acceptable solution for that will be found, especially for the sake of the sability in the Serbian power system as a whole. It is considered to be a good solution that the EMS performs the part-time service maintenance without compensation, but that the ED pay taxes for these services.
Electro distribution of Belgrade (EDB) prepared for the direct command
“Elektrovojvodina” has taken over all substations 110/h kV in Vojvodina territory at the time when it was working organization, that is the 1981. This means that they have met the new legal requirements without any additional tasks. Other distribution companies experienced the takeover of “substations 110” in 2004, when the EMS was formed of the “Electro East”, but the real work started only after coming into force of the Law on Energy (2011). True, a lot of time has elapsed while waiting for concrete solutions and responsibilities as well as the clear demarcations, which ought to be defined by relevant rules and regulations, so, in the meantime, the “substations 110” were left pending. Only then “Electro distribution of Belgrade” was fully prepared for the taking over of the management of these facilities.
Mr. Aleksandar Milojković, Head of the EDB management, said that everything has been done so that, in the midnight of 31st December, when the clock strikes the beginning of New Year, the dispatcher in EDB gets the direct command of the taken “substations 110”. The connection is made between the Central Control room of EDB and the Regional center of EMS, the “skada’ systems are connected, and command and work tested in all these facilities. When we have spoken, they were checking the remote control and remote signaling of alarms and signaling equipment, which was expected to be completed in ten days. Mr. Milojković says that the direct command from the EDB will begin in due time, but that the training of the people for operators shall continue in the coming months. As a matter of fact, he points out that it is urgent that from the eight taken substations 110/h kV, four should be reconstructed and modernized, but that only one substation has entered the Investment Plan for 2013. „Electro Serbia“ takes over 16 substations 110/h kV from the EMS. Mr. Dragan Ivanović, Head of Management Sector in the company, said the preparations for the taking over are nearly finished and that, from the January 1st, the managers of the “Electro Serbia“ will begin to operate on these facilities, and that they will take the complete control when the substations and control centers are equipped with “skada” systems that allow remote control. Based on what we have heard from the respondents from the companies “South-East” and “Center”, it seems that it is not easy to weigh who will take this takeover of the “substations 110” the hardest. Both are in a unenviable financial and investment situations and have relatively small number of substations at this voltage level, and a few people are well trained to work in such facilities. According to Mr. Goran Savić, Head of the “Center“ Management, this company takes over seven substations and, given that it did not have enough quaified people to work in these facilities, it had first to provide the training for twenty electricians, who would be engaged in maintenance or as managers of “substations 110”. Mr. Savić said that six out of seven substation are older than 40 years, but that only substaion “Petrovac” will be reconstructed next year. He particularly explains that there is a significant difference in the conception and technical solutions of the distributional and EMS’s substations 110/h kV, so that the equalization of the systems will require additional costs, as other interviewees from the ED mentioned.
“South-East” takes over majority of the substations
Mr. Aleksandar Krstić, Head of the Management Department in the company “South-East”, said that his company was to take over majority of the substations from the EMS precisely 22, which will triple the number of the facilities in the ED system. Apart from that, the “South East”, according to Krstić, will take control over these facilities on the day of their acceptance, except in Zaječar Branch, where it will be prolonged by 1st March of the upcoming year. According to him, it is a good circumstance that all the substations are incorporated into the remote control system, so that even now the images of all facilities from the “Skada” system could be seen in all center control rooms of “South East”. However, direct remote control of all substations will be provided only in the first half of the 2013. Those responsible for power transmission and distribution systems discussed mainly the technical matters. Some of them have suggested the possible solutions of the property rights and the economic and financial issues, but only in principle. The bottom line is one of those questions: how to change the founding documents of the two public companies, one of which may soon become a joint stock company, and not to be previously cleared in the law, who the network belong to, in fact? If they are in public ownership, it would have to be written in the Energy Law. And then, one would have to know whether it remains an institution “giving to usage” or look for some other form of legal entity jurisdiction over public property. Answers to these questions are expected from the relevant ministries.
Source, kWh/Serbia Energy