Although large solar power plants are lining the territory of Nikšić, the energy system is still waiting for electricity from them. Around 17 million euros have been invested in the construction of the Vrtac, Željezara and Kapino Polje 1 and 2 power plants, and by the end of the year, only a portion of the panels in the Željezara complex are expected to start generating electricity.
The national energy company says that the biggest wait is for the procurement of equipment for substations.
Experts, however, believe that the money should have been invested in a more serious electricity production facility that would replace the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant (TPP) as soon as possible, which solar power plants certainly are not.
Electricity produced in large solar power plants installed in the territory of Nikšić will, in the best case scenario, begin to be distributed by the end of the year.
Of the four Solar-built power plants, two of which are still under construction, only the Steel Mill is expected to be connected, and only partially. This was announced to Television Vijesti by the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG), noting that transformer stations have not been built for these facilities, for which equipment is still being awaited.
Solar Gradnja, a daughter company of EPCG, has completed the construction of the Vrtac power plant, in addition to the Steel Plant, while the remaining two, Kapino Polje 1 and 2, are still under construction. The four solar power plants, in which a total of around 17 million euros has been invested, will have a total installed capacity of 22,1 megawatts.
"The Željezara solar power plant will be connected to the distribution network with around 4 megawatts by the end of the year, and the connection of the remaining 6 megawatts is expected by the end of June 2026. At the beginning of next year, it is expected that the Vrtac and Kapino polje L1 and L2 solar power plants will be connected to the network. The annual production of these solar power plants will be around 30.000 megawatt hours," EPCG said.
The planned annual production of solar power plants is, for comparison, four and a half times smaller than the monthly production at the Pljevlja thermal power plant.
Experts see EPCG's strategy for developing solar power plants as a failure and are not surprised that we are not yet using their energy.
"They obviously did not have the funds to quickly build solar power plants. It is also indicative that the tender for the procurement of batteries that would store energy when solar power plants cannot operate at night was canceled, so this also indicates that solar power plants are very late and that this entire business policy has suffered a major debacle," said analyst Dejan Mijović.
Mijović points out that solar power plants cannot replace the Pljevlja TPP, and that EPCG should have invested money in the development of a new power plant instead of its ecological reconstruction.
"EPCG has directed all its resources into the so-called ecological reconstruction, and recently we received a message in the EC report that this ecological reconstruction will not meet standards and that Montenegro should accelerate efforts to close it and call for a just transition and help people in Pljevlja develop new businesses because otherwise they will lose their jobs," said Mijović.
While Mijović is slow to build solar power plants, he says that everything EPCG builds with the support of international financial institutions and experts is good. He includes the Gvozd wind power plant among these projects.
Bonus video:
