Vucic: Power prices unchanged for households

“Household power prices will remain unchanged and we are trying to find a solution for the economy by December 31,” he said in a live interview on the pro-regime TV Pink.

According to Vucic, Serbia does not have sufficient quantities of electricity, natural gas and other fuels, adding that the low quality of coal used in thermal power plants is not the only problem. Serbia gets most of its electricity from thermal power plants which burn fossil fuels. “All of Serbia would be left without power if we shut down the coal-powered plants,” he warned. He said that the country’s wind farms aren’t helping the situation. “We did everything to prevent power cuts but no one can say that with 100 percent certainty,” he said.

Vucic said that he is angry with Serbia power company (EPS) acting CEO Milorad Grcic because of the collapse of the national energy system over the past week because of bad weather. “He will not remain in his post. He will be there for a few days until the system stabilizes and then leave,” the president said.

Speaking about the energy crisis, Vucic restored to his traditional use of visual aids, this time with a digital blackboard, writing out figures to illustrate his claims.

He said that Serbia can keep up payments for fuels and power imports at current prices.

Vucic said that Serbia has a contract to import natural gas from Russia for 270 Euro per 1,000 cubic meters for a total of six million cubic meters adding that meetings would held next week to contract the delivery of another four million cubic meters of gas at the same price. He said that the price of natural gas stood at 1,700 Euro on the market. “We are saving eight million a day,” he said.