CORRECTION: Can Block II of Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja increase price of electricity in world by "four times"

Podgorica, Montenegro (21 July 2016) – Claims published by DAN daily on 21 July 2016 that electricity price must rise by nearly four times, or 376% by 2040 in order to make the construction of the Block II of the Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja cost-effective, with reference to the Feasibility Study for this project, are absolutely groundless and incorrect.

In order to provide the public with accurate information, we underline that the projections referred to in the study are related to the movement of the price of electricity over the next 50 years in the global electricity market, regardless of the Block II of the Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja or any project of similar parameters. The projections, made by the Poyry Consulting and Engineering Company Limited, do not refer to the Block II project nor the presented data are related to the price of electricity paid or will be paid by the citizens of any country, including Montenegro. Poyry is a leading international consulting and engineering company that makes long-term forecasts of prices of all energy sources, including electricity, IN THE WORLD MARKET. Therefore, the market price was projected regardless of whether the Block II of the Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja will be built or not. It is ridiculous to think that a thermal plant of 254 MW in Southeast Europe could affect the electricity price in the world market. The Block II is not here an input. On the contrary. The projected price of electricity is one of many inputs to the calculation of the profitability of the construction of the Block II of the Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja.

Another argument which leads to the suspicion that the DAN's article is about manipulation rather than ignorance is the fact that daily announced this content at the central front page as "exclusive", also publishing part of a Feasibility Study's table, although these data had been published by the Government TEN DAYS AGO - on 11 July 2016.

The content in question is not hidden nor suppressed somewhere in the corners of the Government's web page, but was published as the first item on the agenda of the 165th session of the Government of Montenegro and is available with the full title: "Report on the activities of the construction of the Block II of the Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja, with the Feasibility Study for the construction of Block II," at: http://www.gov.me/ResourceManager/FileDownload.aspx?rId=244860&rType=2.

What is most important and is probably the reason for the publication of these manipulations by the DAN daily is that this preliminary study is related to the offer of the Montenegrin Working Team for this project amounting TO EUR 321 million. The cost-effectiveness of the project will not be changed if the Skoda Praha's offer of EUR 329 million is accepted. In any case, the final Feasibility Study is expected to be done in the next few days, because, during this period, the two sides will define the final price of the project.

Therefore, the final study, that should be ready in few days, and the quite certain start of the construction of the Block II of the Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja, that will enable our country to be energy independent, provide our citizens with long-term, regular and high-quality supply of electricity, without depending on the power of energy lobbies, and make it possible for residents of Pljevlja to create conditions for solving environmental problems, are the reasons for the publication of such gross and obvious lies and manipulation.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO