Serbia Not Even Close to Energy Stability – Each Municipality to Reduce Consumption of Electrical Energy by 12%, EPS by 3.2%

Each town in Serbia will reduce the consumption of electrical energy by 12%, EPS by 3.2%, public companies by 5%, and the ministries and the public administration by 15% – announced the minister of mining and energy, Zorana Mihajlovic.

She pointed out that these are the plans that the companies and local self-governments had submitted in response to the recommendations of the Ministry of Mining and Energy for the reduction of energy consumption.

– I thank everybody for the submitted propositions, but that’s not enough, there’s more room for savings, especially when it comes to public companies – the minister pointed out.

“No energy minister will sleep easy this winter”

She reminded that a difficult winter was ahead of Serbia, but that the energy crisis had shown the importance of energy stability.

– There is no energy minister who sleeps easy. We import electricity nearly every day, we are 100% dependent on gas, because we import from one supplier. We are also dependent in the domain of crude oil, because we sold our oil company in 2008. Serbia is therefore not even close to energy stability, and energy security is a condition for national security – Mihajlovic repeated.

Still, a solution exists, and it lies in renewable energy sources, the minister pointed out.

– No matter how much resistance there is to abandoning coal, there is no other way for us. Unless we do so, we will import over 30% of electrical energy soon, instead of 15%. It is up to us to explain to the economy, the public sector and the populace what it means to have clean energy. We should use our solar and wind power to make hydrogen, not relying on any supplier or a single source of energy and never depending on anybody – Mihajlovic said.

Following a meeting with the parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany, Franziska Brantner, she pointed out that Serbia now needed investments in RES.

– We got the Law on RES, we are working on bylaws, but that’s not enough. We need investments in RES. Our partnership with Germany has lasted for 71 years, and investments in energy have been made for two decades now. The projects with the KfW bank alone are worth over EUR 1.4 billion. We will continue working together with Germany and we should find a way to abandon coal and accelerate investments in RES – the minister said.

M. D.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

KfW kancelarija Beograd

Ministry of Mining and Energy

KfW bank

Zorana Mihajlovic

Franziska Brantner

consumption of electrical energy

plans for reduction of consumption of electrical energy

power savings

difficult winter

energy crisis

import of electricity

import of gas

renewable energy sources

clean energy

investments in RES

Serbia and Germany