The construction of the desulphurization plant at the Nikola Tesla A Thermal Power Plant will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions tenfold.
This, in addition to clean air for the people of Obrenovac, will also guarantee the extension of the operation of this thermal power plant, said the acting director of EPS, Milorad Grcic.
The plant worth 217 million euros, which is being built by Mitsubishi Hitachi and Uzice’s Jedinstvo, should be in operation from May 2023.
During the tour of the works, Grcic said that this is the largest environmental project in Serbia, while EPS has a larger investment than him in the construction of the third block of the thermal power plant in Kostolac.
He also announced that the third large construction site of EPS will be opened by the end of the year, after the investment in Kolubara B in Kalenic.
“All three major projects show that Serbia, the government and Vucic have a policy that EPS must be strengthened and that EPS must expand,” he said.
He added that it was important that EPS signed an agreement in Republika Srpska on a joint investment in the construction of three 120-megawatt hydroelectric power plants on the Upper Drina, which is the first such investment in almost 40 years.
“All this shows that Serbia has a serious stability and a serious future in terms of energy,” he said.
Grcic announced that a tender for the revitalization of blocks A1 and A2 in TENT will be announced this year, and that the total power of 450 megawatts, which was previously planned for complete shutdown, will be preserved.
“As part of the revitalization of those two blocks, a desulphurization project will be done,” he added.
The president of the municipality, Miroslav Cuckovic, said that Obrenovac is the largest construction site in Serbia, where 500 million euros have already been invested in the highway, the Meita investment and the bridge over Kolubara and Sava.
“Another 500 million euros are invested in the thermal power plant, and one of the projects is the one here, which will permanently define a healthy environment in Obrenovac, and permanently define new jobs and the existence of this giant of ours for at least five decades,” Cuckovic said.
He added that Obrenovac will get a port with EPS investments, which will be a new potential for the development of the municipality.
“All the builders who are here today are working for the future of the children who are now in primary school, who will find their job in the thermal power plant in the future,” Cuckovic said.
He assessed that such investments contribute to Serbia remaining an energy-independent country that makes its own plans.
The president of the EPS workers’ union, Milan Djordjevic, said that the desulphurization factory was the result of a decade-long struggle and a response to the demands of the European Union submitted to Serbia and EPS.
“We are trying to be a representative company in Serbia, in the Balkans and in Southeast Europe, and I hope that EPS will find its place under the sun in the EU one day by building such factories and ecological cleaning,” he said.
He thanked director Grcic and president Vucic, who, as he assessed, are the most deserving for prosperity in EPS.
“EPS is a lifeline and this government has recognized that better than all the others before, but that does not mean that they should relax, and the union is here to control them to work even better,” said Djordjevic, B92 reports.
