PODGORICA (Montenegro), November 14 (SeeNews) – Montenegro's hydro power output declined by between 40% and 50% year-on-year in the first eight months due to the unprecedented drought this year, a senior official of power utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) has said.
In the first eight months of 2017, the production of hydropower plant (HPP) Perucica declined by 42% to 295 GWh, while the output of HPP Piva declined by 50% to 257 GWh, Darko Krivokapic, head of EPCG energy management department, said in an interview published in the October edition of the corporate magazine of EPCG.
The drop in hydro power output was compensated through imports and the output of wind farms and thermal power plant (TPP) Pljevlja, which produced 765.5 GWh of electricity in January-August, up 14% on the year, Krivokapic said.
"Therefore, we can say that TPP Pljevlja is the true backbone of the power system, as was the case during the first two months of this year, which were marked by extremely low temperatures," he noted.
Montenegro’s net power consumption rose by 6% month-on-month to 1,536 GWh in the first eight months of 2017, according to EPCG data.