Coal pollution from sixteen aging power plants in the region is responsible for around 3.900 premature deaths, according to the Chronic Coal Pollution analysis by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL). Coal pollution is also responsible for 8.500 cases of bronchitis in children and other chronic diseases annually, which leads to health costs of 11,53 million euros.
Emissions from existing coal-fired power plants in the region continue to be a primary concern for the health and well-being of citizens.
The Secretariat of the Energy Community recently announced the implementation for 2020, in which some of the key obstacles in the reform of the energy sector of the Western Balkan countries were highlighted.
"Thermoelectric plants that have decided to abandon the application of the Directive on large combustion plants and compliance with the value limits for emissions defined by this Directive are quickly approaching the limit of allowed working hours approved by the Energy Community. Thermal power plant Pljevlja is the first in a series of plants whose number of allowed working hours will expire", Diana Milev Čavor from the NGO Eco-team points out.
He states that the key moment in further energy development and its planning in Montenegro will depend on the future operation of the thermal energy complex in Pljevlja.
"The Ministry of Economy of Montenegro has already sent an official request to the Energy Community in which it requests an additional number of working hours for the Pljevlja thermal power plant, for which the allowed number of hours will expire by the end of this year. In the meantime, the contract on the environmental reconstruction project of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant has already been signed and the main project is being prepared, which should be completed by the end of the year. Until now, the public could hear different information about the existence of a study that confirms the economic justification of this project, and it is still not clear whether a feasibility study was actually done that confirms the economic justification of the project. For this reason, we consider it unacceptable not to publish that study if it really exists, and on the other hand, the even more unacceptable possibility that this project was approached in such a way that the feasibility study for this project was not even done", says Milev Čavor.
He points out that the ecological reconstruction project is a capital project, with far-reaching consequences not only for the Montenegrin energy sector and the environment, but also for the socio-economic situation in the country, which additionally obliges the management of EPCG to approach this project very cautiously.
"The reduction of pollution from the Pljevlja I thermal power plant is certainly urgent, and the question is whether it will be realized through the reconstruction or closure of the thermal power plant. In any case, a plan for a just transition should be developed in the near future because the shutdown of this sector requires the necessary readiness and preparedness for such a scenario. It also means the development of sustainable economic activities at the local level that will provide new jobs and support the people employed in the coal sector who will suffer the most from the transition process. is currently being prepared in Montenegro, which will replace the existing Energy Strategy," said Miller Čavor.
He believes that it is necessary to make concrete efforts to achieve the decarbonization of the energy sector, even though "Montenegro is still ranked well when it comes to legal compliance".
"An example is North Macedonia, which is currently seen as a leader in the energy transition in the region, because its energy strategy for 2040 foresees the gradual phase-out of coal by 2030, making it the first country in the Western Balkans to have a coal phase-out date", concludes the press release of the NGO Eco-team.
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