CEDIS: We reject accusations that have political overtones with indignation

The Montenegrin Electric Distribution System (CEDIS) announced today that they could not foresee or prevent the negative confluence of circumstances that led to the non-performance of the concerts planned for Friday, July 26 as part of the Thunder Fest in Berane.

The Municipality of Berane and the Trurist Organization of Berane announced earlier today that "the first evening of the festival for young people in the north of Montenegro, Thunder Fest, was not held solely due to the inaction and negligence of CEDIS and their "experts" who were neither capable nor able to for a full six hours, they determined and removed the recent malfunction and provided normal electricity supply at the venue of the festival."

"This is precisely why we demand a constructive relationship on the part of the representatives of the Municipality and the Tourist Organization, considering that in CEDIS we undertook all the activities that were required of us during the preparation of the Festival. We also strongly condemn and consider extremely frivolous and presumptuous any bringing in the question of the expertise of our teams," the CEDIS press release states.

In the CEDIS press release, it is added that during the correspondence with the organizer, regarding the Thunder Fest power supply and connection provision, CEDIS was not asked for a team on duty, which they say is a frequent request when organizing similar events.

"However, even if the Organizer had asked for a team on duty, considering the complexity of the fault, almost the same period of time would have been necessary for the repair. Namely, due to bad weather conditions yesterday in the afternoon, and strong atmospheric discharges, the fault occurred on the connecting cable for the substation "Dolac" in Berane. It is an underground cable, which implies the presence of a test vehicle and in certain cases a significant period of time to locate the fault. Also, the rehabilitation process, after locating it, is complex because it requires excavation and only after that therefore, yesterday's storm caused a breakdown that is one of the most demanding to repair, and that is why we stand by the position that it is unconstructive to look for the culprits and point the finger, because CEDIS could not have prevented the negative sequence of events, nor shortened the duration of the repair, "they said from CEDIS.

They also stated that all available teams are currently on the ground, as well as that everyone in CEDIS who can contribute to solving this problem is on standby, in order to provide power for the Festival as soon as possible.

"We reject with indignation the accusations against CEDIS that have political overtones and we believe that these and similar thoughts of the representatives of the Municipality and TO Berana are the result of haste, especially considering the previous cooperation and familiarity of the representatives of the Municipality with the activities and investment plans of our company for the Berane area CEDIS firmly stands by the position that the power supply problem is the result of "force majeure", but if the organizers believe that they have been damaged, there are instances that will unequivocally establish this. We do not understand the lawsuit you are announcing as a threat, on the contrary, as a chance to unequivocally establish facts and responsibility," CEDIS said.

They note that they are doing everything in their power to repair the damage as soon as possible.

"Finally, we emphasize that EPCG is not competent in this case, but the distribution of electricity, the distribution network and substations are exclusively under the competence of CEDIS," the announcement concludes.