YET ANOTHER REPORT ON BALKAN ENERGY CRISIS AFTER BULGARIA’S NPP CLOSURE

09:02 Fri 04 May 2007

Serbia is in danger of electricity shortage because of the closure of units three and four of Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP).

The units were shut down on December 31 2006 and Bulgaria decreased its energy export several times, Serbian newspaper Politika said.

Another reason was weather conditions in Southeastern Europe, which caused low level of the Danube, Morava and Drina rivers and lower electricity production of the water energy plants in the region.

An energy collapse is expected as meteorologists predict that summer 2007 will be the hottest one within a century, Politika said. Electricity consumption in winter and summer is almost equal due to the air conditioning usage.

According to energy experts Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia will suffer the most from the eventual energy crisis.

The energy shortage will lead to increase in the price of electricity and delay of the economic growth in the whole region.

Comments

Comments by Jan Haverkamp - Greenpeace - 11:26 04 May 2007
	The devil is in the detail. Serbia has as such sufficient capacity, but has been benefiting from the dumping prices of Kozloduy electricity in the past. Electricity prices will increase anyway when Serbia (as the other Balkan countries) will start to take the maintenance of their electricity sector seriously - something that has not happened for a long time. Also, Serbia has seen this moment coming since the 1992 decision in the G7 in Munich on the closure of Kozloduy... time enough to upgrade its run-down electricity sector. Furthermore it must be taken into account that Serbia is currently increasing already its imports from Romania. Conclusion: Politika sees indeed a problem, but fails to address the causes and Kozloduy is merely used as a scape goat. The solution for Serbia - as for the other Balkan countries - can be found in increase of energy efficiency (amongst others by upgrading their existing infrastructure) and the promotion of the development of renewable energy sources.
Comments by Ivan - 22:38 04 May 2007
	Who are these experts? Water energy plants? You mean hydropower plants! There are other, sustainable ways to cool in summer time! For example with geothermal energy, reducing the need of electricity.