Last year, unknown persons employed in "Solar gradnja" illegally connected "customers-producers" of electricity to the distribution network, which is why the Energy Regulatory Agency (RAE) filed a criminal complaint with the Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) in Podgorica in February of this year for the existence of a well-founded suspicion that a criminal offense has been committed for which he is being prosecuted ex officio.
The statute of "Solar Construction" does not stipulate that this energy company is connected to distribution networks, and by law only the Montenegrin Electric Distribution System (CEDIS) can do this work.
This was stated in the Report on the situation in the energy sector for last year, which was prepared by the Agency, and which, as it states, was not informed of the decision made by the ODT in Podgorica until the end of July this year.
The regulator also indicated that the connections were made before signing the contract with ODS (distribution system operator - CEDIS) and the supply contract with the supplier (Elektroprivreda).
Solar gradnja, part of the EPCG group, specializes in the procurement, design, installation and maintenance of photovoltaic systems (solar panels).
"We inform you that no case has been opened based on the case report in the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica", was answered yesterday by "Vijesti" from the Podgorica ODT to the questions of whether a case was created regarding this report and whether any of the employees and management "Solar construction" heard.
The agency clarifies that it obtained this information by asking CEDIS in January of this year to provide it with data on the total delivered and received energy at the customer-producer connection point and on the total produced electricity at the connection point of electricity production installations and installations for electricity consumption by customers-producers in 2023.
"CEDIS submitted a response that stated the following data - "production at the "threshold of the power plant" - 10.037,66 MWh, electricity delivered to the distribution system (DS) - 13.674,68 MWh and electricity taken from the DS - 14.225,37 MWh . The analysis of the data from the aforementioned letter led to the conclusion that the customers-producers delivered more electricity to the system (13.674,68 MWh) than they initially produced - production at the "threshold of the power plant" (10.037,66 MWh), so due to such an obvious illogicality (because it turns out that someone gave something to another that he did not have), the Agency asked CEDIS for an explanation. The requested clarification was submitted in the act of CEDIS on February 5, 2024, in which, according to the Agency's assessment, allegations were made that incriminate the actions of non-governmental persons employed in "Solar construction", according to the regulator.
In the CEDIS letter, the Agency states explicitly that "colleagues from "Solar gradnja" connected new customer-producers to the network before signing the contract with ODS (CEDIS - distribution system operator) and the supply contract with the supplier (EPCG) ", and concludes "that the main reason for the discrepancy between the produced and received energy (injected into the ODS network) is due to the connection of power plants to the ODS network without prior approval from the ODS, i.e. the signing of the connection contract".
"CEDIS in the letter, therefore, points to two things - the connection of new customers-producers during 2023 was not done in accordance with the law and the connection of new customers-producers during 2023, in violation of the provisions of the Law, was handled by NN persons employed in " Solar buildings". In accordance with the Law (Article 182 paragraph 3), CEDIS has the authority to connect the end customer's facility to the electricity distribution system exclusively, after the supplier (EPCG) reports to him that he has concluded an electricity supply contract with the end customer, and the said contract , on the other hand, in accordance with Article 182 paragraph 1 of the Law, it can be concluded only after CEDIS informs EPCG that the end customer has fulfilled the obligations from the concluded contract on the construction of infrastructure for connection and connection, which refer to connection to the system. The aforementioned contracts and the very act of actual connection of the end customer's facility to the electricity distribution system must be preceded by a request for connection submitted to CEDIS (Article 175 paragraph 1 of the Law)," the Agency states.
It is further stated that the Law clearly stipulates that connection implies the implementation of a procedure initiated by the end customer's request to CEDIS, in which the two aforementioned contracts are concluded with the end customer (in one, the contracting parties are: the end customer and CEDIS, and in the other: the end customer and EPCG), and which ends with the act of connecting the object to the distribution system, which is the only one authorized to perform CEDIS.
"From the letter of CEDIS dated February 5, 2024, it is concluded that during 2023, this standardized sequence of steps was not followed, that is, that the connection in the case of new customers-producers was carried out before the end of the described procedure, by those who they are not authorized to do so, and only after that the conclusion of the contract from Article 182 of the Law was started. The Statute of "Solar Construction" (Article 6) stipulates that the company's activities include, among others, installation of electrical installations, installation of carpentry, plastering, painting and glazing. In the said act, therefore, there is no mention of the connection of facilities to the distribution system. Based on the above, the Agency submitted a criminal complaint to the ODT in Podgorica in February 2024 against unknown perpetrators employed in "Solar gradnja" due to the existence of reasonable suspicion that they committed a criminal offense for which they are being prosecuted ex officio," the report says.
It was stated that this report was supplemented in March of this year in connection with the citizen's initiative, in which it was stated that there was "commissioning of the electricity production system, before the installation of the two-way meter", which is why the production was calculated as consumption", which resulted in high electricity bills for March and April 2023.
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