By: Gal Kovač / Nova24tv.si
The Slovenian electricity network is under increasing pressure. After GEN-I sold the annual production of electricity from the Krško nuclear power plant under the leadership of Robert Golob, it now has to import it at significantly higher prices. According to the announcement of the monthly overhaul of the nuclear plant, which GEN simply forgot about, the 5th and 6th units of the Šoštanj Thermal Power Plant should now be switched off. Among other things, based on the monthly weather forecast. The country thus found itself in an absurd situation, in which it has enough capacity to produce about 85 percent of electricity, but imports about 75 percent of it, and electricity prices are now the highest in Europe. Almost self-sufficiency with electricity, once the pride of the country, has thus blown into the air after only a few months of Golob’s government.
Teš should thus be idle until November 2nd, with the possibility of an extension until November 30th. It is supposed to be about saving coal, although the director of Eles, Aleksander Mervar, stated at a press conference on September 21st that TEŠ will operate smoothly during the overhaul of the NEK, which will last until November 2nd. Today, however, he says: “There is no reason to panic”!
But according to Mervar, the situation has changed. In a long note that he sent to the public, he wrote that the situation on the market is greatly influenced by the sabotage of the Severni Tok gas pipelines and the pillar strike that occurred in the Velenje Coal Mine on October 12th, as a result of which lignite mining will be lower than it was predicted in the projections for the period between November 1st and March 31st, 2023. One of the reasons for the switch-off is the drop in term (DayAhead and SPOT) prices on European stock exchanges.
Due to the newly created conditions, an assessment of the operation of the transmission power system was made in the event that both NEK and TEŠ were to be disconnected from the network. “Analyses have shown that the transmission system could work smoothly even in such a situation, mainly due to the devices that we have integrated into the system in the last two years as part of the SincroGrid EU project,” wrote Mervar.
It is an accumulation of energy
The HSE, which manages TEŠ on behalf of the state, explained the decision to the newspaper Finance as follows: “It is a preventive shutdown to accumulate energy. The coal mine Velenje does not provide us with any contractual obligations at the moment. The electricity that would otherwise be produced will have to be replaced on the market, currently the prices are relatively favourable. If market conditions are favourable, the shutdown will last longer.”
Electricity will be much more expensive in winter
The exclusion from the system is said to have occurred mainly due to savings. Electricity will be much more expensive in the winter than it is now, but since there will be much less coal available than planned, according to their estimates, it is much more profitable for Slovenia to import electricity now, and then switch to coal in the winter months, which, according to their forecasts, will then be more favourable than imports. In the event that the situation on the international markets worsened again, then: “Teš will go back to the grid, and if that is not enough, then also on gas blocks that would use extra light fuel oil,” announced Mervar.
