The last coal reserves are being spent and energy experts warn that thermal power plant Oslomej need to be modernized, otherwise for three years, this thermal power plant will not satisfy EU environmental requirements and it will be closed for that reason.
According to Macedonian experts, the investments planned for thermal power plant Oslomej are around 100 MEUR. Bearing in mind that the equipment is very old and there was not enough coal, it is considered an alternative way that would not have thrown 50-60 MEUR for environmental sections, but to build new thermal power plants.
ELEM analysis show that preadaptation of thermal power plant on gas is expensive and unprofitable, while the use of domestic coal is unsustainable.
Imports of high-caloric coal together with boilers preadaptation is presented as a realistic and economic option in all scenarios. However, energy experts warn that parallel will be required to answer the question of how to deliver coal to the power capacities.
Koco Andusev, president of the Macedonian Energy Association, told for Macedonian television that the energy issue could be converted into a problem of logistics. He points out that it is true that TPP Oslomej has no railways, but it is true that Kicevo has a railway and Oslomej is a few kilometers from Kicevo and this compound should be made. But we also need to ensure the port logistics, in fact, coal should come by boat to Drac in Albania or Thessaloniki in Greece.
Otherwise, the hydropower plant Sveta Petka and a wind farm near the town Bogdanci are the last significant energy capacity put into operation.
According to a recent study of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences, large hydropower plants that exist only on paper will become profitable to be built when electricity be twice as expensive. ,transmits Serbia-energy.eu
