The Serbian Government has declared the emergency situation in the entire territory of the country, due to abundant snowfall and very low temperatures. The consumption of the electric energy, including Kosmet, has surpassed all earlier records and reached 159.27 million kWh. Nine million is imported on the daily basis, and the Serbian Electric Power Industry Corporation plans to stop importing by 2015, because it will increase the investments in the production and efficiency. The report from Tamara Prodanovic.
The subzero temperatures and heavy snow will keep Serbia “frozen” this week as well, so the battle against ice and snow continues. Exceptionally cold weather is forecasted, with temperatures under -20 degrees centigrade, and if it turns out to be true, the electricity consumption in the next ten days will again reach record numbers, stated Director of the Serbian Electric Power Industry Dragomir Markovic, adding that all production programs of this corporation are working in full capacity. If needed, the energy plant in Sremska Mitrovica will be put to operation, too. Such big electricity production is possible owing to good preparation of the coal mines and thermal power plants, which are precious during so cold days. Thousands of workers in the Electric Power Industry are engaged around the clock in maintaining the production and distribution of the energy, along with crisis headquarters and 24/7 servicing. Because of the snowfall and load, the malfunctions are happening on the grid, but the servicing teams are removing them in the shortest time possible.
Neither blizzard nor frost, which can push thermometers on the strip-mine down to 25 degrees below zero, can distract the miners of “Kolubara”, because half of the electric energy in the country comes from coal. Every day, 40 trains are leaving the mine, with 60 thousand tons of coal. The biggest electricity plant in South East Europe provides 60% of power in Serbia and keeps the entire regional system stable. The deposits of the thermal power plant “Nikola Tesla” hold 750 thousand tons of lignite, which guarantees the unimpeded electricity production. With regards to gas, the daily consumption in Serbia is currently 16 million cubic meters, the biggest in history, as the result of bad hydrological situation, explains Dusan Bajatovic, the Director General of the Srbijagas Company. The Gazprom has already communicated that despite the situation they will not decrease the amounts of delivered gas to other countries. However, even if the deliveries were decreased by 20%, it would not cause problems in the Serbian gas market. At the moment, there are reserves of 40 million cubic meters in Hungary, and it is possible to draw two million on a daily basis from those. When it comes to the gas storage facility in Banatski Dvor, Serbia can distribute four million cubic meters from there every day. Even in the worst case scenario, most heating plants have sufficient reserves of crude oil to use instead of gas, so there should be no heating crisis in Serbia.
Source Glas Srbije
