The editor of the “Energy of the Balkans” portal, Jelica Putnikovic, stated today that Serbia will soon have no problem with electricity, after block B of the “Nikola Tesla” thermal power plant is turned on.
Recently, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, during a tour of the works on the revitalization of block B of the thermal power plant “Nikola Tesla”, said that from the moment the network is turned on, on November 25 or 26, there will be no more problems with electricity and that it will be a salvation for Serbia.
“Mr. Vucic actually talked about electricity, and that block has a considerable capacity. That means, in fact, that there will be enough electricity from domestic sources. Now smaller amounts of electricity are imported because that block does not work, but what is good is that the block is being revitalized, it is not a simple overhaul, but its service life is being extended by 30. It is a deadline by which we have to shut down thermal power plants, at the same time, its capacity is increasing,” Putnikovic told Tanjug. She added that reducing electricity consumption is beneficial for the state, as it will not have to expand capacity.
“Not only the citizens, but also the economy, are behaving a little wastefully. Probably the reason is the lower price of electricity than in Europe. People are used to heating with electricity, it is a comfortable way of heating. If consumption is reduced, we, the consumers, save and the state will not have to build new capacities. Experts say that this is a new capacity, when you reduce consumption, because you will have electricity left to export. This motivated people to think about replacing doors, windows, to make insulation on the walls. We have an action for solar panels, maybe not everyone will succeed in that, but it is good to work on it. The only drawback is that the manufacturers of that equipment have increased the prices, that is a problem that the state could take into account,” Putnikovic said.
The question also arises at what price Serbia could procure gas, considering that the director of “Srbijagas”, Dusan Bajatovic, recently stated that Serbia could procure it from Russia for less than 450 dollars for 1,000 cubic meters.
“The price on the energy exchanges in Europe jumped to 2,000 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters. Then we had a statement by President Vucic that we do not know exactly what the price of gas will be in Serbia in the new, renewed contract with ‘Gazprom’ after January 1, 2022. Then, it was mentioned that the price could be around 450 dollars, and now the price has dropped on the stock exchanges in Europe. Serbia could have special treatment, as a partner of ‘Gazprom’, Russia in many energy projects,” Putnikovic said.
The price of electricity is much lower when you have a nuclear power plant
After Vucic’s statement that Serbia could be a co-owner in one of the nuclear power plants in neighboring countries or to procure small modular nuclear reactors on its own, Putnikovic said that the price of electricity when a nuclear power plant is built is significantly lower.
“In order to build a nuclear power plant, it is necessary to train the staff who would build it, and then run that power plant. On the other hand, President Vucic announced that we could become co-owners of a nuclear power plant in the area, maybe in Paks, Hungary, about 15 percent of the share. We need money for that, but many investments are loans. Investing in secure capacity for electricity production will pay off in the coming decades. On the other hand, the price of electricity production when a nuclear power plant is built is much cheaper,” she told Tanjug.
She also referred to small nuclear modular reactors.
Putnikovic believes that it is safer to have a production capacity on our territory than to have an investment abroad.
“We don’t know what will happen in a few years when there is another energy crisis. That country, where we invested, can say, ‘we need so much and so much electricity, we won’t tell you all this, we will pay you, then we would be without electricity,” she added.
She reminded that a moratorium on nuclear power plants in the former Yugoslavia was declared after the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl.
“Somehow nuclear energy has been declared dangerous energy, which is not ‘green’. The people are scared, somehow there has always been a public guard: ‘why do we need nuclear power plants, we can do without them’. Now that the stories about preventing climate change have started, now that we know that we have to close the production of electricity from coal, to close thermal power plants on coal, then that has become a safe option for the production of energy. That is realistic,” she concluded, Tanjug reports.
