General Director Zivkovic: EPS should be the operator of Serbia's future nuclear power plant

Photo: Danilo Mijatovic

EPS (Electric Power Company of Serbia) General Director Dusan Zivkovic said today that EPS should be the operator of the country's future nuclear power plant, since as the largest energy company in the country, it has the development capacity for that role. He added that the focus should now be on educating future personnel.

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Speaking at the expert meeting "Energy, Projects, Security" held on Mt. Zlatibor, Zivkovic pointed out that through the process of decarbonization, EPS understands that a new era is coming and that the basic energy source must be different.

Zivkovic stressed that countries that own nuclear power plants are among the most developed and that Serbia should find its place and space in this technology, EPS quoted him as saying in a statement.

"The most significant, strategic investment is the construction of the reversible hydroelectric power plant Bistrica and that project is making progress. We have location conditions for the power plant, which is the basis for further development of the project, and at the beginning of next week we will announce the initial tenders for infrastructure works," said Zivkovic.

Zivkovic added that natural gas is certainly a transitional energy source, as well as that the gas power plant in Nis is being discussed intensively.

He reminded that EPS has had very good financial and production results in the last three years.

"It's the result of the work of the team I lead, of all employees. Today, EPS is a stable, profitable company with clear, set plans for development. Over these three years, EPS has gained an additional capacity of 426 megawatts. We completed block B3 in Kostolac and provided 350MW of new safe, base power. We also put into operation our first wind farm in Kostolac, with a capacity of 66MW and a 10MW solar power plant Petka. We finished desulphurization plants in TENT A and TENT B (coal-powered plants)," said Zivkovic.

He stressed that now all Serbia's large thermal capacities have drastically reduced sulfur dioxide emissions, by as much as 30 times.

"We invested significant funds in environmental protection. We completed the revitalization of the reversible HPP Bajina Basta and ensured energy security for decades to come. By renovating the largest hydroelectric power plants, we gained another 100MW, and during the last few years the total is almost 550 megawatts of new power on the grid," said Zivkovic.

Speaking about the challenges, he pointed out that "we should insist on a solution for the CBAM tax for energy produced from OIE, because in this way, 550MW from wind farms with an annual production of up to 2,000 GWh could generate up to 250 million euros in income from energy exports."

Zivkovic also said that currently energy from the region is uncompetitive in the EU, and that the EU itself often lacks energy.

(Telegraf.rs)