Energy Profiteers Take Another €3.4 Million from Citizens – Over €100 Million in Subsidies So Far

In just the first six months of this year, more than €3.4 million (excluding VAT) in subsidized fees was paid out through the Montenegrin Electricity Market Operator (COTEE) to private companies, mostly those operating small hydropower plants (sHPPs) and wind farms (WFs), according to the NGO Action for Social Justice (ASP).

Since 2014, when the first sHPP started operating, subsidies paid through COTEE have reached around €102 million (excluding VAT). The VAT is ultimately paid by end consumers – citizens and businesses – while the state treasury collects it.

Meanwhile, Alcazar Energy is seeking to declare public interest status for its wind power transmission project, which would allow it to seize villagers’ land for private profit.

Read more:

Alcazar Energy Seeks Public Interest Status for Wind Power Grid – Will Montenegrin Villagers Lose Their Land?

Residents Adopted the Declaration for the Rescue of Brezna: Entry Banned to Corrupt Politicians, Greedy Tycoons, Alcazar Energy and CGES

Alcazar Energy Partners Is Blackmailing Us and Threatening Expropriation

With €100 million, the amount already subsidizing the private energy business and profiteers, Montenegro could have completely solved the problem of building day-care centers for people with special needs, elderly homes, or invested in new kindergartens and schools.

Of the €3.4 million paid in the first half of this year, €2.6 million went to wind farms, while the rest was directed to small hydropower plants.

These subsidies are based on legal and sub-legal provisions established under the former ruling party (DPS) and its allies – rules that have proven extremely harmful for consumers.

The business scheme for these energy projects granted concessions for 27–30 years, with investors receiving subsidies for the first 12 years. Citizens financed these subsidies through their electricity bills, or partially via the state budget.

According to official data, 33 sHPPs were built under this incentive scheme, while 8 have since moved to the market system. Most were constructed in the north of Montenegro, where locals have long protested that small hydropower plants have destroyed their rivers.

In addition to sHPPs, subsidies are currently being paid for the two large wind farms (Možura and Krnovo) and several solar plants.

In August 2023, Montenegro adopted a new Renewable Energy Law, which maintains subsidies for renewable power producers. Since mid-2022, dozens of urban-technical permits have been issued for large-scale wind and solar plants, sparking fears of mass land occupation.

The planned installed capacity of future wind and solar projects is nearly three times greater than the total current installed capacity of all existing power plants in Montenegro.

One of the first areas under direct threat is Sinjajevina – previously saved from becoming a military training ground, but now targeted by energy profiteers. Environmental impact studies for new energy projects there have already been given the green light, stated ASP. 

Let us recall, the residents of the village of Brezna in the municipality of Plužine have for months been fighting to stop the construction of a 400 kV substation in the center of their village, which would become a hub for connecting several dozen new wind and solar power plants to the distribution network, as well as international transmission lines Brezna–Sarajevo, Lastva–Pljevlja, and many others. The Citizens’ Initiative Save Brezna discovered that the Montenegrin Transmission System (CGES) falsified project documentation on the basis of which it obtained a €28 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). CGES claimed that within a radius of 2 km from the planned location of the SS Brezna there were no houses, although in fact there are 150, and they also concealed from the EBRD that the geological characteristics of the terrain are extremely risky, which could lead to an international disaster if a transformer station is built at this site.

One of the companies planning to connect to the electricity network in Brezna is Alcazar Energy Partners. They plan to build a large wind power plant in Bijela in Šavnik, with the transmission line running across the property and homes of Brezna residents. The Citizens’ Initiative Save Brezna accuses them of numerous illegal actions, falsification of documents, and blackmailing the most vulnerable members of the community in order to secure passage to the substation.

The Citizens’ Initiative Save Brezna has filed a lawsuit and a criminal complaint with the Special State Prosecutor’s Office against CGES and associated companies and individuals, and has also announced a forthcoming criminal complaint against Alcazar Energy Partners.