Despite the economic and energy crisis, problems in the production and supply of coal, as well as the unprecedented drought, the Electric Power Company of Serbia stabilized production and provided enough electricity, said financial director Milan Laković and pointed out that in the first 16 days of February, EPS made a profit from exports to worth around 13 million euros.
“During this month, production is at the level of the plan and averages around 120 million kilowatt hours per day.” Coal production from the Kolubara and Kostolac basins is in accordance with the plan, the landfills are sufficiently filled with coal, and the hydrological situation is extremely favorable both on the Danube and the Drina,” said Laković to Tanjug.
He emphasized that the most important thing for citizens is that electricity in Serbia is the cheapest in Europe. EPS, he adds, despite the difficult year 2022, performed positively in the last quarter. According to him, the previous year was very challenging in the technological and financial sense, but the production was stabilized and even export was ensured in the winter period, which is best illustrated by the mentioned data on the profit of around 13 million euros.
Speaking about the plans for 2023, Laković pointed out that it is planned to achieve a turnover of close to 500 billion dinars and a profit of 20 billion, which, he says, will enable further financial stabilization and growth of the company.
“This will enable us to do all the necessary current and overhaul maintenance, and also to start a new cycle of investments, both in environmental projects and in the production and construction of new capacities from renewable energy sources,” he emphasized.
He adds that most will be spent on environmental projects so that all EPS capacities are in line with European Union directives.
New capacities
When it comes to new capacities, he stated that the thermal power plant in Kostolac with a capacity of 350 megawatts is planned to be put into trial operation in the middle of this year, and that the first wind park with a capacity of 70 megawatts will be online in December next year.
Laković pointed out that the opening of new solar power plants on all vacant areas and landfills of EPS, the construction of the “Petka” solar power plant in Kostolac with a power of almost 10 megawatts is also planned. The plan is to launch a tender for the design and construction of a solar power plant at the Kolubara landfill at the end of this year.
“We are in the process of making a study for the construction of the reversible hydroelectric power plant Bistrica, which is one of the significant projects for the stability of the energy system in our country. The project is worth more than 600 million euros and has a capacity of up to 630 megawatts,” said Laković and added that work will also be done on a large ash removal project at the “Nikola Tesla” thermal power plant.
Investments will also be made in equipment because, he adds, at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year, with the great support of the Government of Serbia, the departmental Ministry of Mining and Energy and the Ministry of Finance, the procurement of mining equipment for 300 million euros was contracted.
