Serbia intends to become a strategic partner of the United States in energy

BELGRADE, 19 Sep – PRIME. The Serbian authorities are preparing an agreement with the US leadership on strategic cooperation in the field of energy, including the construction of a new hydroelectric power station on the Danube, said Minister of Mining and Energy of Serbia Zorana Mihajlovic.

Mihajlovic on Monday held a meeting with US Ambassador to Belgrade Christopher Hill.

“Serbia is at the beginning of the energy transition and we need the experience and knowledge of those who are ahead of us in this process if we want to increase the production of clean energy and achieve energy security. For more than a year we have been working and preparing a draft agreement between the two governments on strategic cooperation in the energy sector , which would be an important step in the development of relations between Serbia and the United States in this area,” the press service of the Ministry of Energy Mihajlovic quotes.

The Deputy Prime Minister added that new large projects are expected in the energy sector of Serbia, among which one of the most important is the project of the reversible hybrid hydroelectric power station Djerdap 3. Mihailović said on August 1 that the combined capacity of the hydroelectric power plant could reach 2,400 megawatts, with another 400 megawatts of wind and solar power generation capacity.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in July 2021 that the Serbian authorities plan to invest 380 million euros in the renovation of the existing Djerdap hydroelectric system on the Danube over the next 10 years. Then he inspected the modernized engine room of the Dzherdap-1 hydroelectric power station on the Danube in the east of the country. The fifth of the six hydroelectric units of the station, like the rest, was modernized by the Russian company Power Machines, it was launched in November 2019. As a result of the work carried out since 2003, the resource of each renewed Dzherdap-1 unit has been extended by 30 years, and the capacity has been increased from 174 to 201 megawatts.

“Dzherdap-1”, equipped with turbines and generators of the Leningrad Metal Plant and “Elektrosila”, began work in Yugoslavia in 1970. The station produces about 5.5 billion megawatt-hours per year – half of the electricity produced by Serbian hydroelectric power stations. As part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Belgrade in January 2019, Power Machines and the state-owned company Electric Industry of Serbia also signed an agreement on cooperation in the modernization of 10 hydroelectric units at the Djerdap-2 HPP.

HPP “Djerdap-2” is located on the Danube River in the eastern part of Serbia at a distance of about 260 kilometers from Belgrade. It has 10 hydroelectric units, of which eight are at the main hydroelectric power station and two are at the additional one. The hydraulic power equipment for the units of the main station was manufactured by Silmash’s branches – Leningrad Metal Works and Elektrosila – in 1983–1985. Earlier, Power Machines fulfilled a contract for the modernization of the control systems of all ten turbines of the Dzherdap-2 hydroelectric power station.