The Secretariat of the Energy Community filed a complaint against Montenegro because last year the deadline for 20.000 working hours of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant with outdated technology, which is a major source of air pollution, expired. The Government and Elektroprivreda have two months to prepare a response to this application, and the goal is to enable the operation of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant with the existing technology until its reconstruction.
This was stated in the information adopted by the Government yesterday.
Five years ago, the former government initiated negotiations with the Energy Community regarding the reconstruction of the TE and obtaining new hours of operation with the old technology, but did not use that time to complete its obligations, which is why Montenegro is now facing the danger that the TE will stop working or that the state pays significant penalties for violating international obligations.
Montenegro is bound by the Directive on the limitation of air pollution emissions from large thermal plants, but in recent years nothing has been done to fulfill the obligations. It was only in June of last year that a contract was signed for the consortium led by the Chinese DEC, which also includes the Podgorica companies Bemax, BB Solar and Permonte, to which an advance payment of ten million euros was made, but the work has not even started yet. The new management of EPCG has announced that it will check this contract worth a total of 54 million euros.
The Government announced yesterday that the Ministry of Capital Investments and EPCG will be actively involved in the procedure before the Energy Community in order to achieve the most favorable outcome, which should not mean the shutdown of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant.
The thermal power plant is the largest and most stable producer of electricity in Montenegro, which provides about half of the total needs of all consumers.
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