THE BEGINNING OF ENERGY TRANSITION: SOLAR PANELS FOR HOUSEHOLDS AND ECONOMY

In addition to 3,000 households, another 500 business entities, i.e. small generating units and public institutions in Montenegro will have the possibility to install solar panels, as decided by EPCG Board of Directors which adopted the Preliminary Design and the Feasibility Study for the project, the implementation of which will be under responsibility of the Project Committee. The chairman of the Project Committee is Milutin Đukanović, the Chairman of EPCG Board of Directors. The Project Team consists of the following members: Rajko Radusinović - Member of EPCG BoD (Deputy Chairman of the Project Committee), Ratko Mitrović, Ph.D. - Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism (Member of the Project Committee), Radmila Lainović, Acting General Manager of the Directorate for Development in the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism (Deputy Member), Nikola Rovčanin, EPCG's CEO (Member of the Project Committee), Ivan Mrvaljević - the Executive Officer of the Directorate for Development and Engineering in EPCG (Deputy Member), Marko Perunović - the State Secretary for Energy and Mining in the Ministry of Capital Investments (Member of the Project Committee), Aleksa Ćulafić - Representative of the Ministry of Capital Investments (Deputy Member of the Project Committee), Rajko Radošević - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System (CEDIS) (Member of the Project Committee), Vladimir Ivanović - the Managing Director of the Operating Directorate in CEDIS (Deputy Member of the Project Committee), Vladimir Čađenović - CEO of CEDIS (Member of the Project Committee), Boris Ostojić - representative of CEDIS (Deputy Member of the Project Committee), Koča Đurišić – the Director of the Real Estate Administration (Member of the Project Committee), Draško Boljević - Acting Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Fund (Member of the Project Committee), Andrej Nedović - representative of the Eco Fund (Deputy Member of the Project Committee), Bogdan Minić - Head of the Project Preparation and Implementation Department in the Montenegrin Electric Transmission System (CGES) (Member of the Project Committee), Stevan Čanović - representative of CGES (Deputy Member of the Project Committee), Branko Knežević - representative of CGES (Member of the Project Committee), Marko Kovačević - the President of the Municipality of Nikšić (Member of the Project Committee) and Janko Odović - the State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance (Member of the Project Committee).

Bojan Đordan, the Executive Officer of FU Generation, is the project manager, and several working groups were set up, tasked with implementing various segments of these important projects.

The Board of Directors made the decision to launch the public invitation for financing the project Solari 3000+ and Solari 500+, estimated at €30 million. Local and foreign financial institutions will be entitled to participate in the public invitation.

The project Solari 3000+ and Solari 500+ represents the beginning of energy transition in Montenegro and it is one of the most important investments into energy sector over the last 40 years. Based on energy transition, the project's goal is to reduce CO2 emission as much as possible and preserve the environment.

This project will make it possible for 3,000 households residing in individual residential facilities to get photovoltaic installations, i.e. solar panels, so that customers and buyers become generators and sellers of electricity. In addition, the investment will enable that 500 legal entities apply for participation in this project, i.e. small generating units and public institutions.

The Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, the Ministry of Capital Investments, the Ministry of Local Government and CEDIS will have an important role in the project implementation, and particularly the ECO Fund which will use funds paid to it by EPCG to subsidize its customers with minimum 20% of the investment value, so that each participant in the project gets subsidized with €1,000 – €5,000. Citizens and companies will therefore have the possibility that their electricity-related instalment and bill not exceed their ongoing electricity bill amount, during the repayment period of a loan granted for the equipment, which is from 5 to 7 years.

The entire project will be implemented during the period not exceeding 6 months, starting from the day of signing the financing agreement. The plan is that the projects Solari 3000+ and Solari 500+ be implemented twice a year over the next five years.

In order to implement the project, a great number of citizens will have the chance to get a job in EPCG, given that the public tender for Solari 3000+ and Solari 500+ will be launched for 500 new jobs.

In compliance with its long-term objectives, sustainability strategy and bilateral cooperation with EU, in order to reduce CO2 emission, EPCG has initiated projects concerning replacement and reduction of usage of harmful energy sources. This is how EPCG develops projects of construction of Gvozd wind farm, floating solar power plant on our hydro reservoirs, solar power plant on infertile land as well as Velje Brdo solar power plant and Briska Gora solar power plant. The project of ecological retrofitting of TPP Pljevlja is underway, as well as installation of the eighth unit in HPP Perućica and the project of water regulation in the Nikšić field.

Implementation of these projects will make it possible for the national state-owned power utility to become the driving force of Montenegro's economic development.