The heating season in Pljevlja officially began after the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Development annulled the decision of the Environmental Protection Agency from July this year, which prohibited the operation of the city boiler house on Skerlićeva Street.
Director of “Heating” Vlado Tošić states that their position is that the company must ensure continuity of work at least until the city's heating system is fully installed.
"If we want to preserve existing users and later expand the network, we cannot allow the system to be shut down," said Tošić.
He said that the boilers were in extremely poor condition, but that they had managed to replace all the boiler equipment that was replaceable.
Last year, multicyclones were installed in the boiler room, and this year, flue gas fans arrived, says Tošić, with the aim of achieving better combustion, which should result in a reduction in the emission of harmful substances into the air.
Experts from the Center for Ecotoxicological Testing (CETI) will soon conduct measurements of pollutants. Tošić expects the results to be satisfactory and that the environmental inspection will allow the boiler house to continue operating.
He claims that in the last two years they have been consuming 1.500 tons of coal per year, while previously they were consuming up to 2.400. Thanks to investments in the boiler room and secondary network, they have reduced consumption by 900 tons. The municipality and the state have invested hundreds of thousands of euros in adapting the system, from replacing external installations to installing new flue gas fans that improve combustion and reduce pollution.
The director of "Grijanje" warns that closing the boiler room would create major problems for tenants, because many buildings in Pljevlja do not have the option of heating with solid fuel nor are they technically adapted for heating with electricity.
The Director of Heating said that there will be no increase in the price of heating services for users.
"We have adopted a tariff system, but because of all these problems we have with ecology, we are not even able to start implementing it. There should be an increase in heating services because everything has become more expensive, including electricity and water and all those parameters that affect us, but we will not increase the price," said Tošić.
On December 26th of last year, the Environmental Inspection banned Grijanje from carrying out the activity of producing and delivering heat energy because the analyses conducted by CETI showed that the concentrations of powdery substances, carbon monoxide and arsenic were above tolerance limits.
The heating company then contacted the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Development with a proposal to postpone the execution of the environmental inspector's decision, and after their urgency, the environmental inspector extended the deadline for executing the decision until May 15, when the ban on the boiler room's operation came into effect again.
The tenants of the building on Skerlićeva Street are categorical that they do not want a boiler room in their building. At a meeting of the tenants' assembly in mid-July, they all signed a request for a permanent ban on its operation.
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