The Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, Radovan Višković, has stated today that the Republic of Srpska would continue to have a regular supply of electricity and energy, despite disturbances in the world market, and pointed out that there would be no increase in electricity prices for citizens or the economy.
“The price of electricity remains at the current level at least until the end of 2022”, said the Prime Minister Višković after the meeting with the management of “Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske” in Trebinje, which was also attended by the line Minister Petar Đokić.
The Prime Minister Višković stated that they discussed the procurement of necessary quantities of electricity in the most painless way in case of short outages of thermal power plants in Gacko and Ugljevik due to their age, emphasizing that it was discussed to borrow and exchange the necessary quantities of electricity with the electric power companies from the Federation of BiH and from Serbia.
He pointed out that such outages occured about 20 times a year and could last for several hours, and that experts estimated that it was best not to procure energy at expensive prices on the market, but to exchange it when there were surpluses, in order to have the smallest losses for all.
The Prime Minister Višković pointed out that the topic of discussion was the current increase in the price of energy on the world market, and stated that the energy sector in the Republic of Srpska would work in accordance with the circumstances.
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska praised the work of the Mixed Holding “Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske”, which had made a profit of almost 80 million KM last year, which had been achieved through joint work, representing the biggest profit of this system since its existence.
He pointed out that the urgent need of the Republic of Srpska, but also of BiH, was to realize as many projects from renewable energy sources as possible.
The Prime Minister Višković said that he expected that the preparatory works on HPP “Dabar” would be opened in a month and a half at the latest, and that all the conditions and obligations of our own domestic participation in that project of 15 percent would be met by then.
The Prime Minister stated that the project of the hydropower plant on the Bistrica River was being realized in accordance with the planned activities, regardless of problems from the FBiH related to the project of the hydropower system Gornja Drina.
As the Prime Minister Višković said, no one in BiH needed such problems, since such energy projects were of interest to all citizens in BiH and the energy from these hydropower plants would be put on the domestic market first, as a priority always, if there would be any problems with imports.
He stated that the meeting in “Elektroprivreda Srpske” was good and added that one of the topics was the current procurement of diesel fuel for the smooth operation of two thermal power plants in Gacko and Ugljevik for this year.
The Prime Minister Višković said that these activities were underway, but that there would be no contract with the bidder who had been the only one in the previous public procurement, because there were changes in energy prices on the market and the procurement procedure for those 10 million liters of fuel would be repeated, in order for these thermal power plants to operate smoothly.
“All the necessary quantities of fuel for thermal power plants will be procured and will be stored in the Brod Refinery”, the Prime Minister Višković added.
The Prime Minister Višković said that he requested at today’s meeting for “Elektroprivreda Srpske” to be involved in the preparation of expert analysis and supervision of the situation in the thermal power plants in Gacko and Ugljevik, in connection with the financial and technical situation in those plants.
