Serbian oil and gas producer NIS has started trial operation at two small gas-fired power plants at the Banatsko Miloševo and Srpska Crnja gas fields. The units are part of NIS’s field-based generation activities supporting power supply.
Project scale, output and utilisation assumptions
The plants have combined installed capacity of 5 MW and require investment of approximately €17 million. Expected annual electricity production is 40.5 GWh, corresponding to a capacity factor of about 92.5%. The high utilisation assumption points to continuous operation as field-based generation rather than occasional peaking.
NIS expects the annual output to be sufficient for electricity consumption of close to 8,000 households. The company plans to use part of the generation internally and sell the remainder to external customers.
Fuel use, network implications and monitoring equipment
The plants will consume gas that was previously not commercially utilised. Using field gas for power generation is intended to improve resource recovery and reduce flaring or other disposal routes. It also avoids transporting small or technically difficult gas volumes into the wider network.
The two units are equipped with modern monitoring and control systems designed to meet current environmental requirements. Their small scale limits any impact on Serbia’s national generation balance. At the same time, they provide dispatchable local supply and reduce electricity demand from upstream operations.
NIS small-scale generation programme and trial performance checks
NIS began developing small-scale field generation in 2013. It has since commissioned 22 power-generation and cogeneration units across Serbia, investing more than €28 million before the latest project. The programme links operational efficiency with gradual decarbonisation, while the resulting electricity remains based on fossil gas.
The start of trial operation focuses on technical performance parameters including guaranteed heat rates, gas quality, emissions, availability and synchronisation with the distribution or transmission system. For NIS, the investment is described as an upstream optimisation measure rather than a conventional independent power project. It converts a low-value or stranded fuel stream into electricity while strengthening energy autonomy at the two producing fields.
