Battle for Serbian cubic meters and kilowatts – 2024 Retrospective, investments in ENERGY AND UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE

Probably not since the first half of the seventies and the oil shock, when oil started to move towards the well-known prices from 3 dollars barrel, has the crucial life question – while questions of death are increasingly being decided by increasingly banal machines, such as drones controlled from a “smart” mobile phone (some idea!) – depended so much on the energy provided by carbon-free or ecologically clean potentials. Ultimately, the power of the atom too. Serbia, tucked away, somewhat sheltered from World War III, in which it would have cheered against the Americans even if they fought against aliens, as one since recently less popular historian said, has not escaped this either, but that still does not mean that it would willingly commit suicide – for its Russian brothers.

1. Last year’s Retrospective

That our people also felt a chill about this topic is also shown by the fact that our most widely read energy-related article last year, with figures like a minor scandal in a reality show, was – the retrospective of investments in energy in the previous Year of our Lord! As if, just to be on the safe side, we fear that this summer could be the last (warm) one. And the topic in that article, after the great energy crisis – after we turned EPS on a spit – was all-encompassing, from the construction of the RHPP Bistrica as a national priority – it never got started – to the oil pipeline to Hungary – we would need it now – and the hydroelectric power plant on the Ibar River, for the construction of which we founded a company back when Tadic was in power.

In addition, here is what our people wanted to read, for now under an (energy-saving) light bulb and from a municipal source of electricity:

2. Djerdap 3 – Bucharest won’t hear our pleas

Romania rejected the construction of Djerdap 3! The people who have a saying that in their neighborhood they have the Black Sea and Serbia as their friends, equally respect their own interests, and so we hear from the Romanian populace and the senate that a new, reversible Djerdap in the Serbian hills – would reduce the flow to the Romanian turbines. For us, on the other hand, it would be a gigantic energy storage facility for the times when we need it the most. Will Bucharest hear our pleas?

3. Gasification of Cyprus


4. Closing Serbian thermal power plants

The process of finally closing two domestic thermal power plants got the bronze medal – as if, God forbid, we feel a little sorry for those toxic plants... that have been heating our stoves for decades with cheap electricity during the night, although we have never systematically solved the issue of heating bathrooms. At the end of the year, however, a new possibility emerged – a chance for a second life for these already mourned facilities: the Kolubara and Morava thermal power plants could burn biomass.



5. Germans financing green hydrogen in Serbia

Green hydrogen – an ecological fuel that is produced in an environmentally sustainable way – is emerging as a favorite in the attempt to save the world through energy transition. The planet is slowly cooling down from its enthusiasm for electric cars of the Musk type, those with lithium batteries, and the powerful industry is increasingly looking towards electric cars that get their electricity from hydrogen fuel cells. And that means that fuel would be poured at gas stations again. The German government has decided to finance a pilot project for the production of green hydrogen in Serbia, and the HyDSerbia project will be implemented by Leipziger Energiegesellschaft. The beginning is planned modestly and as a “pulse-check”, and the ambition is to eventually establish green hydrogen installations throughout Serbia.

6. Azerbaijani gas is not like Russian

Given the large differences in quality and chemical composition between Russian and Azerbaijani gas - and the fact that we have previously only had experience with Russian imported gas - the company Transportgas Srbija doo from Novi Sad has commissioned a study on gas blending in the transport system. Azerbaijani gas comes to us via Bulgaria, and it is possible that some view this as another stab in the back from our neighbors and Western powers (and from Azerbaijan?); However, President Vucic was not at all happy when, at the beginning of this year, he announced that Azerbaijan was forced to stop gas supplies to Serbia for technical reasons - fortunately, the drama turned out to be unnecessary and a different kind of gas is once again coming to us from the Caspian Sea.

7. Hyundai investing in Serbia’s “solar gigawatt”

In October, the South Korean giant Hyundai announced that it would soon sign a contract with the Serbian government to build 1 gigawatt of solar power plants in our country, which was soon done. In the field of renewable sources, after (old) hydroelectric power plants and the first EPS wind farm, the state will thus take a big step into solar energy. The start of the construction of state-owned solar power plants is announced for the end of this year or the beginning of next year.



8. No new RES power plants to be connected

The spring news that the connection procedures for power plants using variable renewable energy sources are being postponed due to the identified risk to the safe operation of the power system and the lack of reserves for system balancing caused great attention, especially among our professional subscribers. To clarify, the Serbian Transmission System Development Plan for the period from 2023 to 2032, determined that the maximum RES capacity that the system can balance is 5800 MW (4800 MW in wind power plants and 1000 MW in solar capacities), which means that not everyone will be able to sell electricity from solar and wind power plants...

9. Novi Sad-based investor changing laws of physics

Nikola Tesla announced in 1900 that gravity could be used to start machines, and I made it practical, researcher and inventor Veljko Milkovic, a member of the Serbian Academy of Inventors and Scientists (SAIN), said in an interview for eKapija. In his patented two-stage mechanical oscillator, the output energy produced is 12 times greater than the input, and the laws of physics, as we were taught, say that the input energy must be greater. But this additional energy does not come from nothing, but from gravity. Can Serbia use the inventions and patents of this inventor from Novi Sad?



10. Radljevo open-pit mine – Coal until 2085

And until green energy takes root – stick to coal, Serbs! The Serbian Electric Power Company has submitted a request to the relevant Ministry for a decision on the need for an environmental impact assessment for the facilities of the first phase of the industrial and infrastructure zone of the “Radljevo Sever” open-pit mine. Radljevo is, in fact, the youngest open-pit mine in the Kolubara basin. Exploitation was supposed to begin in 2022, but the procurement of equipment was delayed. In the next six decades, this mine should provide up to 13.5 million tons of coal per year, announced President Vucic. That was a roundabout way of telling us until when we intend to use coal as an energy source.

Elektroprivreda Srbije ad Beograd

2024 Retrospective

Retrospective Energy

Đerdap 3

construction of Đerdap 3

natural gas

LNG

LNG terminal

earth gas

gas pipeline

TPP Morava

TPP Kolubara A

closing of thermal power plants

closing of two thermal power plants

green hydrogen

production of green hydrogen

green hydrogen in Serbia

Azerbaijani gas

mixing of gas

state solar power plants

Hyundai

connection of power plants

Veljko Milković

two stage mechanical oscillator

Serbian Academy of Inventors and Scientists

SAIN

Radljevo open pit mine