According to Serbian media, the situation regarding electricity generation at state-owned power utility EPS even worsened during summer, because only 2,000 cubic meters of water per second arrives to hydropower plant Djerdap on the Danube, which is three times less than the multiannual average.
Director for electricity generation at HPP Djerdap Radmilo Nikolic said that, considering the hydrological situation, this year will be weaker when it comes to electricity generation and the expectations are that the generation of the HPP will be about 30 % lower than average. Under normal conditions, HPP Djerdap provides about a quarter of Serbia’s electricity consumption.
What is also worrying for EPS is that the artificial lakes in the Drina-Lim HPP system are half-empty, and they provide up to 12 % of the electricity to the system. At eight of the HPPs within the Drina- Lim system, electricity generation is about a third lower than planned.
However, severe drought is also threatening normal operation of coal-fired thermal power plants in Serbia. In the normal production process, thermal power plants use river flows and water from rivers to cool the technological process. When the water levels are low, things become critical, and under certain conditions, the production will have to be halted preventively, so as to avoid damaging the production facilities.
