(Podgorica, 20 June 2011) – The authors of the draft Plan for the Undersea Cable and Transmission Line, running from the coast to northern Montenegro, claim that the new transmission network will draw on electricity from the controversial Buk-Bijela hydroelectric power plant. The construction of the Buk-Bijela substation in Brezna near Plevlja is justified based on the possibility that Bosnia will in fact build the hydroelectric power plant.
This is only one of the non-existing and uncertain projects that are included in the projections made by the Government in gauging the feasibility of the energy connection with Italy. Specifically, the authors of the document state that the development of a transmission network must be ready to assume the full technical potential of hydropower, wind and sun energy.
The draft Plan therefore explicitly refers to the future hydropower stations on the Morača (whose ultimate capacity has yet to be defined), the hydroelectric station on the Komarnica (for which there is also no plan), the thermoelectric station in Berane, the complex of wind turbines at Krnov, as well as the small hydropower plants in Šavnik.
Given that these future energy sources are planned within Montenegro’s existing energy frameworks, they are a clear manipulation since the draft DPP reveals that the transmission line for the undersea cable are a separate transmission system, which will be used to export energy to Italy.
In fact, the entire length of the transmission line provides a single transformer facility through which energy currents would be transmitted into the domestic energy system at 220 kV, 110 kV or 35 kV. On the basis of this information one could conclude that the entire transmission line is being planned to transport energy from Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Albania to Italy (in which case it would not mean an improvement of domestic capacity, even though it uses space on the territory of our state).
The authors of the project at one point admit who will benefit most from the transmission line (that takes up some 14,000 acres of Montenegrin territory): “Taking into account the plans for the development of the productive capacity in Bosnia and Serbia, to the north of Montenegro, as well as the building of an undersea cable between Montenegro and Italy, at least one 400 kV interconnection transmission line towards Montenegro would be very useful for the direct and secure export of energy from Bosnia and Serbia to Italy.”
Besides the claim that it is necessary to expand cross boundary energy capacity, the authors failed to offer valid arguments that would confirm any advantage that Montenegro would get from building a transmission line and undersea cable.
The authors of the plan have failed to answer the key question as to whether or not Montenegro needs this planned transmission network or if this was a demand imposed on it by Italy’s Terna (with whom an agreement was already signed).
Unfortunately, the Government and the Ministry of Economy have decided to guard key information from the public in relation to obligations undertaken in the deal with Terna. This means we still do not know everything that the Government of Montenegro promised and how much these promises will cost us.
MANS once again calls on the Ministry of Economy to immediately release to the public all agreements signed with Terna and explain (with concrete facts) what benefit we’ll receive from these projects.
MANS
