Day by day, the world around us is increasingly turning to measures to increase energy efficiency and make the greatest possible contribution to preserving the environment.
It often seems that the whole process goes slowly, but every shift and influence of an individual or a company is immeasurable. In addition to investment projects for environmental protection and increasing the use of renewable energy sources, The Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) together with its commercial customers “boarded the green ship”.
Pioneeringly, two years ago EPS started selling green energy to customers on the free market. It is energy produced in EPS hydroelectric power plants, and every kilowatt-hour from the ZelEPS package has a guarantee of origin. The system of guarantee of origin is regulated at the European level, so that the guarantee issued in Serbia is valid in other countries, and is in accordance with the rights of the European Association, the EPS announced.
Today, there are seven EPS hydropower plants with a capacity of 1,560 megawatts in the guarantee system. Intensive work is also being done on the inclusion of other hydro power plants in this system, and the idea is that customers will soon be offered kilowatt-hours from solar and wind energy.
We emphasize that our green energy is immediately available and that the process of contracting ZelEPS is very simple. Customers can conclude new contracts for green energy supply, if the existing one expires or “green” the current supply, with a simple annex to the existing contract to provide customers with all the necessary information and help them make the process of purchasing “green” energy simple and easy,” they say in EPS Supply, a branch of EPS.
“Our first buyer of the ZelEPS package was Procredit Bank. In addition to banks, EPS’s green energy has so far been purchased by companies engaged in industrial production. Our assessment is that customers are interested in increasing their reputation by buying environmentally friendly products and reducing coal emissions by less use of fossil fuels.”
The number of interested customers for ZelEPS is constantly growing. Green energy sold with a guarantee of origin in 2020 was ten times higher than in 2019. The amount contracted for this year is currently 50 percent higher than in 2020. With this “green” offer, customers remain loyal to the largest energy company in Serbia, and a number of them recognize EPS’s efforts to keep pace with the European Union and the world.
“It is interesting that a number of customers, and that number is increasing from year to year, puts the purchase of green energy as an imperative of its supply. EPS is, in addition to price, competitive in every segment, because we offer our customers all benefits and information about this type of supply of electricity,” they say in EPS.
“In the next period, we will work on negotiating as much of our green energy as possible with customers in Serbia. The priority is to enable electricity customers in Serbia to operate environmentally and realize all the benefits of this choice. Placing guarantees of origin on foreign markets is a secondary goal, after meeting the needs of customers in Serbia.”
Centuries-old tradition
Green energy production is part of the centuries-old tradition of EPS, and today green energy is produced in 15 hydroelectric power plants with a capacity of 3,015 megawatts, which is 38 percent of EPS’s energy potential. EPS realizes a third of the total production in hydroelectric power plants, and the project of building the first wind farm in Kostolac is in progress, so that the water power will soon be increased by the wind power, B92 reports.
