The Serbian power utility Eps plans to invest approximately EUR 5.4bn in renewables by 2030, two-thirds of which will be allocated for wind and solar projects, its acting CEO Dusan Zivkovic said over the weekend.

In an interview published on the renewables association Res Serbia’s website, Zivkovic said that Eps could add around 1.6 GW of new solar capacity to its production portfolio in the next five or six years. A significant portion of this will come from a strategic partnership with South Korea’s Hyundai and US-based UGT Renewables for the construction of 1 GW of solar capacity.

Zivkovic noted that locations currently under consideration for solar plants include those near the 205 MW Kolubara A, 350 MW Kolubara B and 125 MW Morava thermal power plants, as well as the Tamnava surface mines and coal landfills.

Meanwhile, Eps should launch its 66 MW Kostolac wind farm in Q1 2025.

Green power purchase

Regarding the purchase of electricity from other renewables, Zivkovic said that Eps has signed contracts with privileged producers in the feed-in tariff system with annual production of around 2 TWh and a total capacity of about 570 MW.

Eps is also working on concluding contracts with privileged electricity producers that won last year’s renewables auctions for market premiums, noted Zivkovic.

The utility has already concluded such a contract for the purchase of 0.7 TWh of electricity during both trial and permanent operation of the 291 MW Vetrozelena wind farm, while negotiations are underway with three other large wind farms that have won the right to market premiums, with a total capacity of about 400 MW.

Coal plants

Although it was previously announced that the Kolubara A and Morava coal-fired power plants would be closed by the end of 2023, Zivkovic said during the weekend that the plan is now to keep them operational, but “only for those instances when this is required for supply security and power system stability.”

“These facilities are at the top of the list to be disconnected from the grid as soon as conditions are met,” added Zivkovic.