May 22 (SeeNews) - After floods triggered by record rainfall last week wreaked havoc on Serbia's energy system, domestic daily electricity output is down to 32-33 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) while daily consumption is around 35-40 million kWh with imports covering the balance, energy minister Aleksandar Antic said on Thursday.
Local media has reported that the floods forced over 33,000 from their homes, causing at least 27 casualties and that the damage to housing properties and infrastructure alone is seen exceeding 1.0 billion euro ($1.37 billion).
After the Nikola Tesla A thermal power plant (TPP), part of the namesake power generation complex, is back online and production at hydro power plant (HPP) Djerdap is stabilized, Serbia should be able to produce enough energy to meet domestic demand, Antic was quoted as saying on the website of the energy ministry.
The Djerdap hydro power complex, on the Danube river, comprises the Djerdap 1 and Djerdap 2 HPPs with capacity of 1,058 megawatts (MW) and 270 MW, respectively.
The Nikola Tesla power generation complex, TENT, is the country's largest with an installed capacity of 3,288 MW. It comprises also TPPs TENT B, Kolubara and Morava. TENT A, comprising a total of six units with a combined capacity of 1,650 MW, was shut down on Friday due to the flooding of a transformer station.
On Wednesday, the Serbian government said that the situation in the country's flood-hit areas is no longer critical.
Serbian coal miner and thermal power producer TE-KO Kostolac said on Thursday that the situation at the complex is stable and that the water levels in the perimeter of its Kostolac B TPP have receded significantly and that pumping stations are draining the remaining water into the riverbed of the Mlava river. The whole complex is running at full capacity, the company said in a statement.
The conveyor at Kostolac was flooded and coal had to be trucked from the Drmno mine to the Kostolac A TPP, the company said, adding that there is currently no danger of Kostolac A running out of coal. Kostolac A and B have a combined capacity of around 1,000 MW.
There are still some 13,000 households without electricity in Serbia, including some 12,000 located in Obrenovac, the country's worst-hit town, state-run broadcaster RTS quoted the acting director general of state-owned power utility EPS, Aleksandar Obradovic, as saying on Thursday.
Obradovic said he is hoping the first units of TENT A will be restarted on Sunday as the situation at the power station is currently stable. He cautioned, however, that TENT A is still at risk.
($=0.7308 euro)