Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlovic said this morning that the gas supply was stabilized after the Bulgarian disaster and that it started yesterday afternoon, and pointed out that Serbia must expand its gas storage in Banatski Dvor in the next year, in order to make such situations easier in the future.
She stated that the optimal capacity of this warehouse is 800 million cubic meters, and now it can hold 450 million, of which half is ours and half is Gazprom’s.
Mihajlovic, as a guest on TV Prva, pointed out that in order to better overcome such situations, it would also be good for Serbia, together with Hungary and Bulgaria, to make a crisis plan.
Answering the question when the current global price of gas, which breaks all records, could start to decrease, the minister said that it is not expected to happen before March or April next year, ie not before the end of the winter season in the northern hemisphere.
“Even then, it cannot be expected that the prices will be as they were in 2019 or 2020, but we will at least have prices that are predictable, unlike now when prices change very often,” Zorana Mihajlovic explained.
When it comes to the agreement with Russia on gas supply, which expires in December, she pointed out that negotiations on a new agreement are underway and that more details will be known after the meeting between Serbian and Russian Presidents Aleksandar Vucic and Vladimir Putin, but that she expects a successful and long-term agreement.
“I do not expect that we will have such a favorable contract as the current one, but I expect that we will have a secure gas supply, and that is the most important thing for us,” she pointed out.
She assessed that Serbia will come out of the current general energy crisis with the fact that it has enough energy, and emphasized that the prices of energy for households will not be increased until the end of the heating season.
As far as the economy is concerned, they are changing as the company’s contracts with EPS stand out.
According to her, that raises the costs of the economy and ways will be sought to help it, but businessmen, as she emphasized, could also get involved in energy production, build mini solar power plants and make the economy self-sufficient.
She pointed out that the legal conditions for that exist and that we just need to start the realization.
“Serbia must be as self-sufficient as possible, that we have enough gas, electricity and that our heating plants switch to biomass and renewable energy sources,” Minister Mihajlovic emphasized.
She stated that we should not run away from nuclear energy, which has been talked about more and more lately, and that it would be worth studying this area again.
She assessed the year, which is slowly ending, as successful from the point of view of the ministry she leads, because important laws in this area have been passed.
In order to increase energy efficiency, the implementation of the carpentry replacement project began, and contracts were signed with 37 municipalities and cities for the construction of solar panels on buildings and houses.
“I expect that we will have panels on about 500 households by January,” said Minister Mihajlovic, emphasizing that these two projects will continue in the coming years, so a new competition for carpentry replacement should be expected in January and solar panels in February, Dnevnik reports.
