If it continues to work at the same pace as last year and this year, the Thermal Power Plant will have to stop production already next year in October.
This was assessed by Diana Milev Čavor from the NGO "Eco Team", which organized a meeting called "Platform for a just transition" today in Pljevlja.
She said that from January 1, 2018 to the end of 2023, the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant can operate for a maximum of 20.000 hours, considering that it currently does not meet the EU Directives on industrial emissions.
According to the participants of the meeting, the thermal power plant has worked about 13.000 hours so far, that is, about 7.000 per year.
Milev Čavor assessed that the production costs of TE Pljevlja are extremely high and are higher than the average prices on the Leipzig Stock Exchange.
She said that coal production in Pljevlja will be abandoned in the next 20 or 30 years and that new jobs must be provided and support given to people employed in the coal sector who will lose their jobs.
"Nowhere in Europe do you have plans for the construction of thermal power plants, except in the countries of the Western Balkans, Turkey and certain countries of Eastern Europe. In Western Europe, we have a trend of closing existing thermal power plants that have been operating for 20, 30 or more years, and we have significant investments in renewable energy sources. If we want to close the TE, it is logical that this also implies the closure of the existing Coal Mine. Nobody wants to close the Mine and the Thermal Power Plant, we simply want to start a dialogue about what will happen if that happens. No one expects it to happen in five, ten or 15 years, but in 20 or 30 years it will certainly happen. The entire development of Pljevlja is based on the work of the Coal Mine and the Thermal Power Plant, and on the other hand, although there are potentials for the development of some other branch, so far there has been no significant support or serious plans for larger investments by either local or state authorities," said Milev Čavor.
The president of the Ecological Society "Breznica", Milorad Mitrović, said that after the closure of the Pljevlja Mine and TPP, Gradac and Šula will become Pljevlja's mining settlements.
"We know what will happen to Pljevlje if the TE is closed, but also if the Rudnik and Termoelketrana continue to work. "I think it's too late for all our plans, because we lost a lot of time with heating and rehabilitating the devastated area of Pljevlja," Mitrović said.
The Agreement on the establishment of the Platform for a Just Transition was signed at the meeting. The purpose of the Agreement is to establish a Platform for a just transition, which aims to contribute to the creation of public policies through the joint action of all actors with the aim of transforming local economies based on coal production into sustainable economies based on economic activities that will provide new jobs and give support for people employed in the coal sector who will suffer the most from the transition process.
"Taking into account the intense changes in the coal sector that are taking place across Europe, especially in recent years, both due to the achievement of climate policy goals and the limitation of global temperature growth, but above all due to the financial unprofitability of investments in coal, we already have a significant reduction in the production of electricity from coal . In 2019, global coal-fired electricity production fell by as much as 300 TWh compared to 2018. That's roughly equal to the entire electricity production of Great Britain, Germany and Ireland. When we talk specifically about Europe, the EU experienced a 19 percent drop in coal-fired electricity production in the first half of 2019, and estimates are that by the end of 2019, that drop will increase to 23 percent," said Milev Čavor.
Bonus video:
