Serbia Spends Eight Times More on Import of Electricity in First Two Months Than Last Year – Are Hydro Power Plants the Solution?

In the first two months of this year, Serbia has spent eight times more money on the import of electricity than last year, as shown by the data presented in the magazine “Makroekonomske analize i trendovi”. Aside from the energy crisis, this is mostly down to the malfunction at the TPP Nikola Tesla in Obrenovac, which produces a half of the electricity in Serbia, whereas smaller amounts of electrical energy are still produced in hydro power plants – around 30%.

The hydro sector and reversible power plants are crucial to maintaining energy security, and one such power plant is located on the Drina, on Lake Perucac.

The Reversible HPP Bajina Basta was put into operation in 1982 and is still the only such HPP in our country. It is part of the unit of the Drina-Lim power plant, which, with its annual production of 3,300 GWh, comprises around 10% of the total production of electricity in Serbia.

In addition to producing electricity, these HPPs can also store surplus power, which is of great importance in times of crisis, when we are turning more and more to renewable energy sources.

Ivan Bozic, a professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, notes that it not only serves to compensate for the energy, but also to cover all the surplus coming from solar energy or wind.

– The wind doesn’t know whether it’s day or night, it blows, and when we have wind energy, but not the consumption to cover it, reversible hydro power plants are crucial and they pump water into the upper accumulation. And when it comes to renewable energy sources, the purpose of reversible hydro power plants is precisely to even out those production surpluses and imbalanced forms of production from wind and solar energy – says professor Bozic.

The construction of more such hydro power plants, Bistrica and Djerdap 3, has been postponed for four decades now, and the energy crisis has made these projects current again. Bistrica is somewhat closer to realization.

– The HPP Bistrica has been given priority over Djerdap 3, and the installed capacity of Bistrica would be around 600 megawatts, whereby there are around four generators of 160 MW in the turbine regime and another four in the pump regime. And when you pump in another 600 MW, it’s a great contribution to the electrical energy system – Bozic notes.

Mihajlovic: We will be producing enough electricity in two years

Experts claim that the import of electricity would be much lower now if these HPPs had been built earlier and that we would be able to produce all the electricity we need from them. The Ministry of Energy projects that things will be so in less than two years.

– Based on everything we’re doing and preparing now, we should be able to have 100% power generation in Serbia in the winter of 2023/24. Not importing anything and even thinking about exporting – said the minister of energy of Serbia, Zorana Mihajlovic.

While waiting to be able to export, Serbia is paying dearly for the mistakes made within the energy system so far. According to minister Mihajlovic, by the end of the year, we will spend around EUR 1 billion on the import of electricity.

Mašinski fakultet Beograd

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

TPP Nikola Tesla

TPP Bajina Bašta

Drina Lim power plants

Ivan Božić

Zorana Mihajlović

Perućac

Drina

Bistrica

Djerdap 3

import of electricity

Makroekonomske analize i trendovi

energy crisis

hydro power plants

hydro sector

reversible hydro power plants

energy security

electricity storage