Elektroprivreda (EPCG) made a profit of EUR 140 million in a period of two years, i.e. from April 2021 to the end of March this year, announced the president of the company’s Board of Directors, Milutin Đukanović.
He said at the press conference that these are preliminary results, which can change very little, and that there was no increase in the price of electricity during that period.
“If we were guided by the policy of forming the prices of other energy sources, primarily fuel, it would be a great burden for the citizens. We can say that on this basis we have saved the citizens over one billion EUR. Graphically explained – that citizen who had an average bill of EUR 33, with the increase in prices, his average bill would amount to EUR 115,” said Đukanović.
At the conference on the company’s operations in the last two years, as reported by EPCG, it was stated that EUR 102 million was paid into the budget in the last 24 months, EUR 30 million based on profit, and EUR 72 million based on other duties.
“In the first quarter, we presented a part of the results that essentially relate to last year. Thus, at the end of last year, we ended up with a surplus in our accumulations of 100 gigawatt hours (GWh). We could have sold it in the last ten days of December and on that basis we would have earned ten million EUR. However, we decided to sell those surpluses in the first quarter of this year and on that basis we earned EUR 25 million. That is, we can say an extra profit of EUR 15 million,” said Đukanović.
He emphasized that EPCG Željezara, as a daughter company, has already started building power plants with a capacity of approximately two megawatt hours (MW) and that the company is convinced that there will be a lot of significant investments in EPCG Željezara.
Đukanović reminded that when the new management came to head the company, on April 1, 2021, the number of regular payers was 190 thousand.
“Two years later, on March 31 of this year, the number of regular payers is 230,000, which means that it has increased by 40,000. The percentage of collection is currently over 100 percent”, said Đukanović.
Speaking about the Solari 3000+ and 500+ project, he said that so far over 17 MW has been installed in about 1.5 thousand facilities. On an annual basis, six million EUR will be generated based on the released energy. The project itself will be completed by the end of June this year.
The Chief Financial Officer of EPCG, Miro Vračar, assessed that the company, although operating in a rather unfavorable period, overcame all difficulties and remained dedicated to the citizens and the state.
He stated that EUR 61.5 million was paid into the state budget in 2021, while last year it was EUR 40.5 million. Retained earnings on December 31 last year amounted to EUR 68.8 million.
“In the last ten years, the total realized business result ending with the first quarter of 2021, i.e. until the moment of the management change, amounted to about 127 million, while the positive result from April 1, 2021 to this year’s March 31 amounted to 140 million EUR”, said Vračar.
EPCG, according to its representatives, has a good perspective and they used this period in the best possible way. They said that they will do everything for EPCG to be the locomotive of the economic development of Montenegro.
