Due to the accumulated financial problems, the Electric Power Industry of Serbia has not been able to pay for the electricity it bought from domestic producers from renewable energy sources in the past four months, and owes between six and eight million euros on that basis, Danas has learned.
Sources of our paper say that this is only a part of the obligations that EPS did not pay, because it owes to numerous other suppliers.
The EPS management also informed its business partners that, at this moment, there is not enough money to settle its obligations, thus justifying the delay. The Danas editorial office had an insight into the letter sent by the executive director of the Electric Power Industry of Serbia for Electricity Supply, Radovan Stanić, to a company that produces electricity from RES on May 20, stating that EPS “is in an unenviable financial situation.” with a certain delay, it settles its due obligations, even according to the issued invoices for the produced electricity under the contracts on the purchase of electricity ”.
From what has been written, it is clear that EPS owes not only to RES producers, but also to some other business partners. In the continuation of the letter, the authorities in EPS point out that they are aware of their obligations and that they will be settled “in a very short time”, calling on the company to which they owe for the delivered electricity to be patient.
A source close to Elektroprivreda Srbije points out that the reason why the public company does not have enough money to settle its debts is poor liquidity due to high costs for electricity supply during the last winter period due to insufficient production and numerous accidents due to poor management of the company. Milorad Grčić, the party staff of the Serbian Progressive Party, headed the acting director.
– EPS owes money for the delivered electricity to producers from renewable energy sources for the past four months. On a monthly basis, the public company pays those electricity producers between 1.5 and a few million euros. Accordingly, at this moment, EPS owes suppliers between six and eight million euros on that basis – our interlocutor explains.
He adds that this is one of the priority, but not the only reason for not fulfilling the obligations of the Electric Power Industry of Serbia towards electricity producers from RES.
– Another, also very important reason is that EPS buys electricity from these producers at preferential or significantly higher prices than the real value, because in that way, the authorities in Serbia stimulate the construction and development of renewable energy sources. EPS should cover that cost from the fees paid by electricity consumers in Serbia, through the item that is credited to their accounts. However, that amount is not enough, so EPS, due to the high price of electricity from renewable sources, must allocate additional funds in order to settle them – our interlocutor states.
According to him, only in the period when the Minister of Energy was Aleksandar Antic, a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, due to the refusal of the authorities to increase the amount of the tax, EPS paid about 200 million euros from its own revenues to RES electricity producers.
Considering that in Serbia, for now, there is not a large number of built wind farms, solar power plants, small and medium hydro power plants and other RES, the debt of EPS towards producers is not too large. However, our source adds, a big problem is that EPS owes money to other business partners due to lack of money.
– EPS had to spend significantly more money this winter than it planned, at a time when the price of electricity is the most expensive, in order to import the missing quantities, and now it has run out of funds to settle its obligations. Not only to producers of electricity from renewable sources but also to various other suppliers. What is certain is that this is a temporary situation. The money will be provided at some point and the debts will be settled. At this moment, however, that is not possible – our interlocutor points out.
Yesterday, we also contacted the authorities in the Electric Power Industry of Serbia, in order to check what is the reason why that company owes money to suppliers. In that company, they claim that there is no debt, but that it is “only about the unpaid part of the invoice for April”.
– The Electric Power Industry of Serbia does not owe to privileged producers of electricity from renewable sources. There is only the outstanding part of the invoices for April that were due after May 20. Regardless of the consequences of the global energy crisis, EPS is settling all its obligations as soon as possible – EPS states, Danas writes.
