Gas power plant near Nis not to have 1 GW after all, but half as much

A month ago, the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, announced that, together with Azerbaijan, they would try to build a gas power plant near Nis and that it would have 1 gigawatt of power, which some experts found unusual, causing them to estimate it as a potentially unrealistic endeavor. Now the minister of finance of Serbia, Sinisa Mali, is announcing that, after all, the planned power is 500 megawatts.

The construction of the gas power plant near Nis that Vucic announced at the climate conference in Baku has been planned for a long time now and it has been part of the Strategy of the Development of Energy Until 2025 and the new Strategy of the Development of Energy of the Republic of Serbia Until 2040 with Projections Until 2050.

However, while those strategic documents envisage 150 MW for this gas power plant and a cost of EUR 250 million, Vucic announced that its power would be 1 GW and that EUR 1 billion would be invested in it.

Commenting on Vucic’s announcement, the head of the Department of Thermal Engineering, Thermoenergetics, and Process Engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Nis, Mirjana Lakovic Paunovic, said that a power of 1 MW was enormous and that it might be an overly ambitious endeavor.

– Djerdap has that kind of power, Nikola Tesla B has a projected power of 700 megawatts. I’m not sure how possible it is to do it here at this moment. It’s good as an idea, but it requires a serious technical and technological approach – Lakovic Paunovic said.

Two days ago, the minister of finance, Sinisa Mali, met with the minister of economy of Azerbaijan, Mikayil Jabbarov, and announced that they had discussed precisely the construction of the gas power plant.

– The most important project we discussed is the construction of a gas facility in Nis, with a power of 500 MW, which is planned within the plan of the development of energy infrastructure by 2028, and whose realization was previously harmonized by the two presidents. In the coming period, we will intensify our cooperation in order to successfully agree the implementation of this important project – said Mali.

The construction of a gas power plant near Nis would lead to a more stable supply and increased production of electricity, which the whole south of Serbia could use as well, energy experts said for Juzne Vesti. And while gas is a good solution at the moment, they note that its price, in the long-term, shows a growing trend and that Serbia is a signee of the Sofia Declaration, whereby it has obliged to achieve climate neutrality goals by 2050, and they warn that, with the use of natural gas, those goals cannot be reached.

Mašinski fakultet Niš

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Niš

Ministry of Finance of Serbia

Mirjana Laković Paunović

Mikayil Jabbarov

Siniša Mali

Aleksandar Vučić

construction of gas power plant in Niš