EPS to import coal from Montenegro

Serbia’s power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) will purchase coal from Montenegro’s Pljevlja Coal Mine, owned by Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG), the coal mine said.

The Pljevlja Coal Mine is going to deliver about 300,000 tons of coal to EPS this year.

Of note, EPS produced about 39 million tons of coal in 2020 to supply its power plants, which produced about 70 percent of electricity in Serbia. However, EPS struggled with the production of electricity this winter, and one of the reasons was the poor quality of coal.

According to the Pljevlja Coal Mine, EPS has initiated the meeting that was attended by Acting Director of EPS Miroslav Tomašević, Executive Director of the mine Milan Lekić and the head of its sector for development and investments Jagoš Gomilanović.

The meeting was initiated by the new acting director of EPS

The calorific value of coal for which EPS is interested ranges from 7,500 to 8,000 kJ/kg, which is among lower-quality coals that are delivered to the Pljevlja thermal power plant, the mine’s main buyer.

The mine said the price and transport would be determined at a later date. The mine’s Executive Director Milan Lekić said the price would certainly not be lower than what TPP Pljevlja pays, even though the commodity is of lower quality than the one delivered Montenegro’s only coal-fired thermal power plant.

The price and location of the delivery have not been agreed yet

The Pljevlja Coal Mine will deliver about 300,000 tons of coal this year, with the prospect of increasing the amount, Lekić said, adding that about 500 tons of coal would be delivered daily.

The cost of transport to Prijepolje, just across the border in Serbia, or Lazarevac, where there is a railway toward Serbia’s biggest thermal power plants, the two possible points of delivery for the coal, will be fully paid by EPS.

The sale of lower-quality coals to EPS is an important business deal before the start of the ecological reconstruction of TPP Pljevlja, Lekić said.