Ten units in coal-fired thermal power plants in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina must be closed by the end of 2023, in accordance to the EU’s Large Combustion Plants Directive, according to Energy Transition Tracker, a monitoring system for Western Balkan countries recently launched by the Energy Community Secretariat.
Large Combustion Plants Directive is the most effective legal instrument for cleaning up power plants, reducing air pollution and improving public health in the WB6. It regulates the levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and dust emissions from existing power plants.
All 10 units are currently under the opt-out mechanism, one of the implementation alternatives under the directive. It provides the possibility for an exemption of individual large combustion plants from the compliance regime. In exchange, the plants are not allowed to be operated for more than 20,000 hours between 1 January 2018 31 and December 2023.
According to the tracker, the expected closure dates for the units are calculated based on the extrapolation of the average usage ratio in the 2018 and 2019 reporting years. The first power plant that could be taken off the grid is the 225 MW TPP Pljevlja, this November.
TPP Kakanj has seven units but only three are operational. These 110 MW should be taken off the grid in October 2021. Bosnian TPP Tuzla has six units of which the first two are not operational.
Unit 4 will be on the grid until July 2022, and unit 3 until April 2023. Together they have an installed capacity of 300 MW.
In Serbia, TPP Morava with an installed capacity of 120 MW should be offline in June 2022, while the remaining two units in TPP Kolubara A power plant should be closed in August 2022 and December 2023.
