BELGRADE, July 25 (Reuters) – Serbia’s biggest hydropower plant, Djerdap 1, is producing only a third of its average daily output because the Danube river is at extremely low levels, as prolonged heatwaves and drought affect waterways across Europe, the CEO of state power utility EPS said late on Friday.
Dusan Zivkovic said that in May and June, EPS recorded the lowest production for those months since the Djerdap 1 power plant was opened in 1970. The plant, jointly operated by Serbia and Romania, has total installed active power of 1,140 MW.
“At the moment, the power plant produces about 5,000 MWh per day, which is a third of the average daily production,” Zivkovic told Reuters.
Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on Wednesday that Serbia’s fuel imports fell to 25% of their monthly target for July as low Danube water levels in Hungary, Serbia and Romania forced barges and tankers to operate at 30% to 40% of their cargo capacity.
The low levels of the Danube have impacted other Serbian energy facilities such as the coal-fired Kostolac power plants, where a lack of water affected cooling systems, leading to lower output, Zivkovic said. He warned of more problems ahead, but pledged a stable supply of electricity to the nation of around 6.5 million.
“Unfortunately, forecasts are not any better, and some suggest that at the beginning of August we will have (Danube water) inflows of about 1,500 cubic meters per second, which is the biological minimum,” he said.
Serbia’s hydrometeorological department forecast a minimal rise in the Danube in the coming days due to rainfall upstream.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Susan Fenton)
