Serbian Chamber of Commerce, OCTOBER 14, 2020
The crisis caused by the Covid 19 pandemic indicates the need for increasing diversification of energy sources and requires a different approach of the economy to the energy market. The pandemic will affect the acceleration of the energy transition to the growing position of renewable energy sources, it was pointed out at the round table “Energy Transition and COVID19” held at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
The situation that the Serbian industry paid twice as much for electricity is explained by the entry of our economy into the open electricity market. Contracts are signed at the end of the year and businessmen could, by uniting and forming larger groups versus those who provide them with electricity, achieve better conditions,” said Miroslav Lutovac, advisor to the president of PKS. He pointed out, that SEEPEX ad, “Maybe now is the right time for businessmen with these relatively low prices to try to see the need to supply for a longer period of time, and to ensure safe and stable prices,” he said.
SEEPEX Chief Operating Officer, Dejan Stojčevski, said that Covid 19 led to a drastic drop in electricity prices from March to August, and that from September it would return to the level from last year.
Stojčevski cited the example of Germany, where 20 euros were paid during certain hours with a free supply of energy.
He stated that the decline in consumption in April and May in European countries was 15-20 percent, while in Serbia it was 2-3 percent, and he explained that with a different structure of our industry and increased consumption in households.
“The price of electricity on the Serbian market was below 30 euros, which is unrecorded. However, these prices have no effect on the price paid by households, it has long been regulated and is at a very low level,” he said, adding that the fall in electricity prices. In Serbia, the industry could not use it because it had higher prices than previously agreed. “They signed bilateral agreements at the end of last year for 50 euros, and now the wholesale price on the market is 20 and a few euros. They pay twice as much, but that is the law of the market. We will see what will happen by the end of the year,” he said.
Stojcevski added that a total change could happen and that the price on the stock exchange would be a much higher price than at the same time last year. “Let’s wait and see how these new measures brought by Europe will affect both consumption and production,” he said. As he stated, the crisis caused by the pandemic resulted in a changed structure of production, because the production of thermal power plants in Europe was either suppressed or shut down, and the growing impact of renewable sources on the entire energy sector is noticeable.
https://pks.rs/vesti/preokret-energetike-ka-obnovljivim-izvorima-kao-posledica-pandemije-3282
