Medium and large HPPS will play an important role in Serbia’s energy balance, Zorana Mihajlovic

Caspian Energy (CE): Madam Mihajlovic, how deep is Serbia’s energy network integrated into the Balkan ener­gy network?

Zorana Mihajlovic, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia and the Minister of Mining and Energy:  Serbia’s electricity transmission system is well connected to all eight neighbo­ring countries by 400 kV transmission lines. With the construction of the Trans-Balkan Corridor, with a total length of 321 km, in the construction of which we are investing EUR 157 million, we will achieve greater security of supply for domestic consumers, we will get a kind of an “energy highway” that will go through Serbia and increase supply security in all connected countries.  A new additional transmission line to Romania has already been built within the Trans-Balkan Corridor, and additional interconnections with Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina are being prepared. All this will enable better regional connection, development of the electricity market in the region, and will increase the possibilities and reduce the costs of integra­ting renewable energy into electricity systems. In the future, it is planned to further strengthen the transmission capacities with new interconnections to Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Croatia, in line with the development of the market in the region and the increase in the share of solar and wind energy.

 So, our vision is Serbia connected with its neighbors, which will be an important energy corridor for both electricity and gas.

 In the gas sector, the goal is to connect with all neighboring countries via gas interconnections. This will mean that every gas from every source reaching Serbia will at the same time raise the energy security of the entire region.

Works on the construction of the gas interconnection Serbia-Bulgaria will commence this year (Nis-Dimitrovgrad gas pipeline) and should be operational in 2023 connecting us with the gas pipelines on the Southern Gas Corridor and with LNG terminals in Greece, but also with a project that is very important for the energy security of the entire region, and that is the Eastern Mediterranean gas pipeline. The realization of this project would enable gas from gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean to reach Serbia and the region via Cyprus, Crete, Greece and Bulgaria and the future Nis-Dimitrovgrad gas pipeline. Also, a new interconnection with Republika Srpska, i.e. Bosnia and Herzegovina, will be built, which will connect that part of the region to the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, and in the future we intend to have gas interconnections with Montenegro, Romania and Croatia. In the future, after the completion of the Eastern Mediterranean project, it will be possible to acquire gas from the coastal reserves of the Leviathan field, i.e. Cyprus and Israel, which is important for the energy security of Serbia and the region.