The public company Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) has announced a tender in which it seeks consulting services in the field of strategic investment and development.
The service requested by EPS refers to business-technical and financial consulting.
Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) operates in major financial problems, since last fall alone it has made losses of one billion euros , mainly for the import of expensive electricity.Â
As the media reported, the Government of Serbia hired a Norwegian consulting company that was supposed to do an analysis of Serbia’s energy sector.
What services is EPS seeking with the new tender?
The selected consultant required by this tender will have three tasks, the first of which is the analysis of the “wholesale electricity market, i.e. “formation, updating and maintenance of the market model of the electricity system of Serbia and countries in Southeast Europe”.
As part of that task , the forecast of conditions on the wholesale electricity market for the region of Southeast Europe is also understood.
“This service involves the formation of a market model of the electric power system of Serbia and the system of the countries in the region of South-Eastern Europe (Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania, Croatia, Bugaska, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia) with the influence of the surrounding regions, through the corresponding equivalent of the rest of continental Europe, the markets of Central Europe and Italy, as well as Turkey and Ukraine”, the technical specification reads.
The second task is “selection and ranking of investments” and “optimization and valorization” of the production portfolio of EPS through analyzes of the company’s operations within the power systems of Serbia and the region, and “in terms of limitations according to the EU Green Deal directives”.
This means that based on the results of the market forecast of the Southeast European region, possible scenarios of “portfolio development and investment proposals” should be carried out in EPS.
It is also necessary to rank their priority based on an analysis based on long-term projections of opportunities on the electricity market in the region.
The optimization and valorization of the production portfolio of EPS needs to be implemented in the prospective period of the next 20 years.
The selected consultant will also have the task of creating analyzes according to needs, i.e. ad hoc analyses.
The deadline for the first task is seven months, and for the second six months, all from the date of receiving the data for analysis.
EPS also announced a public call for consultants at the end of August this year, but the procurement was suspended in mid-October because no offer was submitted in the public procurement procedure.
In the suspension decision, it was written that the estimated value of that purchase was 120 million dinars.
The aim of the requested analyzes is to assess the impact that changes in the electric power system of Serbia and its surroundings (consumption changes, new production capacities, withdrawal of existing ones, increasing participation of RES, development of the transmission network…) will have on EPS’s market operations.
The process of energy transition on the way to decarbonization will have the greatest impact on the operations of Elektropirveda Serbia (EPS), it is written in the tender documentation.
In the EPS, it is necessary to carry out comprehensive analyzes that would provide optimal long-term solutions for the use of lignite, which is still a “strategic resource because it ensures the country’s power independence”.
Furthermore, the analyzes should include the production of electricity in thermal power plants, the production of electricity in existing hydroelectric power plants, as well as the increase in the share of renewable sources through new investments.
In Serbia, more than 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are obtained from processes in the electricity production, heat production, fuel production and refineries sectors.
The largest emitter is the electricity generation sector.
On the other hand, about 70 percent of electricity in Serbia is produced in thermal power plants that use domestic lignite and are located within the EPS.
Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) has made losses of one billion euros since last fall, mainly for the import of expensive electricity, and the company’s losses will continue to pile up this and next winter, experts at the New Economy panel said recently.
The largest part of the 2022 deficit of 3.8 percent of GDP comes from covering the losses of Srbijagas and EPS (2.1 percent of GDP), the Fiscal Council stated in its opinion on the revised Fiscal Strategy.
The plan is that in the coming years, direct budget support to Srbijagas and EPS will be gradually reduced, to be completely abolished in 2025.
The EPS can solve its problems only with a comprehensive and fundamental reform, and not with partial measures, according to the analysis of the Fiscal Council.
Due to several years of disastrous management, EPS is no longer able to produce enough electricity for domestic needs, Nova Ekonomija writes.
