The withdrawal of thermal power plants from operation does not mean that some of them cannot be engaged in the event of a crisis, the Ministry of Energy says.
From September this year, citizens will have the opportunity to apply for the third public call for subsidies for energy efficiency measures in households. Public invitations will be announced in 131 cities and municipalities in Serbia. For one measure of energy efficiency, the state and local self-government provide up to 50 percent of investment costs, and for combining several measures, subsidies can go up to 65 percent. At the public call from 2021, around 500 subsidies were awarded to households for these purposes, while the public call from 2022 is still ongoing and so far 113 contracts have been signed with citizens. Almost 4.5 million dinars were allocated in both public calls.
NALED’s research on buyers-producers of electricity in Serbia, which was conducted this year, shows that on average they produce 60 percent of the electricity they consume. The average prosumer (buyer-producer) produces 732 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, and consumes 1,169. The interest in installing solar panels best shows that citizens have recognized solar panels as a measure that can help reduce consumption and costs for electricity.
The total number of customer-producers is close to 1,800, and the total power of these power plants has exceeded 21 megawatts. Compared to the beginning of the government’s mandate, the number of customer-producers, including citizens and industry, has increased by about four and a half times, and the installed capacity by three and a half times. The Ministry is actively working to change the tax regulations in favor of buyers-producers, because we are not talking about traditional consumers.
Thanks to the good cooperation with the Ministry of Finance, at the beginning of the year, the Law on VAT was amended in this sense, so this tax is calculated on net electricity, not on the purchased electricity. We will also work on changing other regulations in the same direction, which will significantly increase the profitability of solar panels.
The concept of energy independence through the use of solar energy brings benefits to households, the economy, but also to the state, and represents a way to involve a large number of citizens in the energy transition. In addition, at the time of the energy crisis, the buyer-producer becomes one of the answers to the question of how to produce more energy, to make that energy green, and to better harmonize production and consumption, the relevant ministry emphasizes.
The growth of production from renewable energy sources (RES) should enable the use of coal to be gradually reduced, but in such a way that the security of electricity supply is maintained at the necessary level, which are the lessons of the energy crisis. Decommissioning of the first thermal power plants in the future does not mean that some of them cannot be engaged in a crisis situation.
The focus is on measures that will reduce the negative impact of energy on the climate, which comes from thermal power plants, such as at the moment the desulphurization projects of the thermal power plant “Nikola Testa” A and B, investments worth around 400 million euros that will reduce the emission of harmful gases to the European standard. We expect the completion of work on TENT A in the coming months.
If we do not count the production of previously built hydroelectric power plants, the share of renewable sources completed in the past few years has reached about five percent of the total electricity production. That initial step continues with the intensification of renewable energy capacity building, mostly wind power plants and solar power plants, among other things, with a public call for market premiums. At all times, the state’s priority is a stable and uninterrupted supply of citizens and the economy.
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