A year ago in Serbia something happened that astonished world experts!

The catastrophic May floods hit Serbia exactly one year ago, and the system of "Elektroprivreda Serbia", which was then one of the most vulnerable in the country, with strong support from the Government of Serbia and the Ministry of Mining and Energy, successfully battled through all its challenges and managed to salvage its production and distribution facilities.

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And in the most critical of days, citizens had a stable supply of electricity, without restrictions, and the production capacity of EPS was defended around the clock. Despite the very serious consequences of floods and estimates by international institutions, the EPS has successfully weathered the winter season.

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The large water element, which has flowed into the Kolubara mines, suspended the entire production and transportation of coal, for the safety of installations and the security of citizens EPS excluded a complete power plant "Nikola Tesla A" in Obrenovac, luckily, the substations and transmission lines were turned off on time in areas endangered by the weather woes.

Foto: Promo

Day and night TENT A was defended, in addition to the thermal power plant "Kostolac B" from Mlava, that threatened to stop working, like never before May 2014, Velika Morava approached the TPP "Svilajnac", opened all the toppings on HE "Djerdap 1" and prevented the flooding upstream from Kladovo - management and employees of the "EPS" managed around the clock, with commitment, work and courage defended the system and ensured energy security for citizens and business.

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Without power were only people in the flooded areas, exclusively for the safety of the population and protection of power facilities.

Unprecedented amounts of water were poured in May of last year in the Kolubara mines. The pits "Veliki Crljeni", "Tamnava Istocno" and "Tamnava Zapadno Polje" poured 232 million cubic meters of water, which is more than the amount of water in the soils of Vlasinsko Jezero. This is precisely the annual production of "Belgrade water supply", much like the volume of 42,000 Olympic swimming pools or the eight-hour casting of the Danube River, with its flow of 8,000 cubic meters per second, in the prospect. All these amounts of water are pumped.

Foto: Tanjug/Đorđe Đoković

Many international experts have assessed that in a year it will not be possible to dig up an ounce of coal mines, because this amount of water in the mine has never been recorded. Despite all the circumstances, EPS, in compliance with all security measures, occupational health and environmental protection measures has managed to successfully pump water from the Kolubara mines and practically put into history this process for the mining practices of the world.

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The degree of difficulty to assess the process of pumping is indicated by data that there are examples of pumping water from surface mines in Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Australia, America, but no where in the world was there a similar case like the flooding of the Kolubara mines. For example, the Australian open pit mine "Garden Well" was faced with pumping out 4.7 million cubic meters of water, which is almost 50 times less than the amount of water in the "Tamnava" and Australians needed 90 days for the pumping out.

Foto: Milena Đorđević

The price of pumping from the mine in Australia was four times more expensive than the price at which water was pumped from the Kolubara mines.

Production at the mine "Veliki Crljeni" was launched back in August, while the first volumes of coal from the mine "Tamnava- West field" was launched before the end of December last year. As water level decreased in the mine, so started the overhaul of excavators and mining equipment.

Foto: Tanjug/Tanja Valič

Currently, the overhaul is in effect for the remaining mining machine in Tamnava's open pit, which will be successively involved in the production this summer.

(Telegraf.co.uk)