Power system failures are inevitable, asserted Saša Mujović, Montenegro’s Minister of Energy and Mining, in an interview with “Dnevni avaz.” He highlighted that system collapses like the one experienced last Friday can be anticipated in the future.
“Absolutely. We hope it won’t happen, but anyone claiming otherwise is not being truthful. It’s akin to asking for a guarantee that there won’t be fires or earthquakes,” Mujović remarked.
He expressed confidence that the investigation into the cause will be handed over to experts in the European network of operators, a process expected to take up to six months.
“If they estimate it will take five to six months to determine the cause, how can we presume, speculate, or blame each other prematurely? These are malicious actions, and it’s unfortunate that expertise is disregarded, allowing unqualified commentary. I would never presume to comment on legal or medical matters, but I’ve been involved in electrical engineering for 30 years. To me, the exact location of the fault is irrelevant. However, it’s clear that high temperatures and heavy loads are critical factors. Failures never occur on pleasant spring days but rather when temperatures are extremely low or high,” Mujović emphasized.
He added that the prolonged outage raises questions not attributable to Bosnia and Herzegovina or Montenegro but rather reflects the EU’s drive towards greater use of renewable energy sources.
“With the widespread production of solar and wind energy, injecting all of this into the system within a short period leads to strain. A balanced energy system requires constant equilibrium between production and consumption. Without this balance, problems arise. Unlike excess apples that can be sold or processed into jam and juice, surplus electricity must be managed in real-time to avoid issues,” Mujović explained.
To enhance system stability and management, regional countries are interconnected, facilitating efficient surplus management and energy withdrawal. However, any major failure impacts neighboring systems adversely.
Mujović believes that while enhancing the reliability of the current system is possible, it would come at an economic cost, necessitating more transformer stations, emergency-supportive power plants, and redundant infrastructure.
“We should focus on expanding our energy capacities. Every country should prioritize this to improve the situation,” concluded Minister Mujović in his interview with Avaz.
