In order to save its power companies, Serbia will rely on Norwegian wisdom. More than that, the Norwegians are also interested in investing in Serbia, says the Ministry of Mining and Energy in response to questions from N1. Energy experts interviewed by N1 believe that it is not clear why the government chose Norway as a partner, since the electricity companies of the two countries are not compatible. They also warn that Serbia already has a bad experience with the introduction of foreign professional management in its companies.
The situation in the Electric Power Company of Serbia is such that the president in Oslo offered the Norwegian consulting company Rystad to enter the management structure of some energy companies.
“We even offered to send one of their people to take over the executive function, which of course they don’t do and don’t want to do”, said Aleksandar Vučić recently.
But what do the Norwegians want? The fact is that the president spent two days on an official visit to Norway, as well as having a reception with King Harald V, which all suggests how serious the intentions of the two sides are. The Ministry of Energy, in response to question N1 on cooperation plans, says that Norway introduced professional management in energy companies 30 years ago and that it has valuable experience.
“Their companies are interested in investing in our country, and some of them have been working successfully for 12 years. The first step is to decide which of the three system reform strategies we will implement. After that, the directions and details of the investment will be known,” the Ministry’s announcement reads.
However, energy analyst Miloš Zdravković says that the Norwegian and Serbian electricity companies are completely different.
“Norwegians have no experience with thermal power plants.” I would like to mention that Norway gets 96 percent of its electricity from hydropower plants…We get 70 percent of our electricity from thermal power plants, and I don’t see how the Norwegians can help us there”, said Zdravković.
Serbia already had experience with professional advisers who came to sort out our companies, energy expert Miodrag Kapor tells N1.
“Let me remind you that before privatization we brought Slovakian professional management to Železara Smederevo, so we had huge losses for our country. The mere announcement of the introduction of professional company management does not mean that something like that will happen”, says Miodrag Kapor.
Nevertheless, the Norwegian consulting company Rystad Energy, with which the Government of Serbia has established cooperation, is one of the most reputable consulting companies, and its founder Jarand Rystad gained his reputation by forecasting and advising the world’s oil giants that oil consumption will increase despite electric cars, thanks to unexpectedly high demand. in the chemical and petrochemical complex. That came true, N1 writes.
