The Coal Mine supplies coal to the boiler plant despite its operation being banned?!

The Environmental Inspectorate ordered the closure of the boiler plant in Skerlićeva Street in Pljevlja after alarmingly high concentrations of harmful substances in the air were recorded in recent days. However, employees refused to “shut down the furnace,” and the Coal Mine, according to unofficial information, continues to regularly supply them with coal.

Our unofficial information was also confirmed by a post from employees of the company “Grijanje Pljevlja,” which includes the boiler plant in Skerlićeva Street. They posted a photograph yesterday, on their Facebook page “Radnici Grijanje” (“Heating Workers”), of a truck loaded with coal and asked fellow citizens not to park their vehicles in the area designated for unloading coal for the boiler plant. According to unofficial sources of the ETV Portal, yesterday morning the truck was unable to pass due to parked vehicles, which resulted in a long delay in unloading the coal.

ETV Portal sent questions to the Pljevlja Coal Mine asking whether it would suspend deliveries to the boiler plant after the Environmental Inspectorate banned its operation, and whether the inspectorate or any other state authority had requested this from the Mine, but we received no answers.

While residents of Pljevlja have been suffocating for days due to dangerous substances in the air that seriously threaten their health, while local authorities are calling for an urgent response from the state, and citizens at protests are demanding the right to clean air, leaders of the power system are competing in statements claiming that the Thermal Power Plant is not to blame, but that air pollution in Pljevlja is primarily caused by the boiler plant in Skerlićeva Street and by residents who heat their homes using “coal and wood”.

 INSPECTOR’S REPORT

However, the report of the Department for Inspection Supervision in the field of electric power and thermal energy of the Ministry of Energy and Mining, which the ETV Portal had access to and which was prepared following two inspections - on 28th of November and 11th of December -clearly indicates that the cause of the city’s pollution is the Thermal Power Plant. During the reconstruction process, it was put into trial operation despite the inspector identifying serious deficiencies and clearly stating that he would issue a decision rejecting the request for trial operation.

The conclusion of the inspector’s report specifies that “works on mechanical installations and equipment on the waste transport system facility for the needs of TPP Pljevlja, within the framework of the ecological reconstruction of the thermal power plant, have not been carried out to an extent sufficient to meet the conditions for trial operation”.

Nevertheless, the management of the Electric Power Company ignored the position of the inspection authorities, and the Thermal Power Plant was put into trial operation, while the population of Pljevlja continues to suffer serious consequences.

In the conclusion of the inspector's report, it is specified that „the work on mechanical installations and equipment on the object of the waste transport system for the needs of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant as part of the ecological reconstruction of the thermal power plant was not carried out to the extent that it meets the conditions for trial operation“.

The inspector also concludes that the As-Built Project, Book 6, Volume 6.1 – Mechanical Project, which was submitted to the inspector, does not reflect the actual condition of the facility, and that a new one must be prepared after the announced project modifications are implemented. The document further states that trial operation requires approvals from the Electricity, Construction, Environmental, and Water Inspectorates, which were not obtained.

The report also notes that the inspector “between the two inspection visits learned from the media that TPP Pljevlja had been put into operation and that shortly thereafter it was taken out of operation due to problems arising in the waste transport system, and that he contacted Ljubiša Janković (manager of the ecological reconstruction) and requested information from him”,

- ... He was informed that part of the slag transport system was not functioning and that the old transport method was being used, while part of the ash transport system was functioning properly, albeit with initial difficulties due to unfamiliarity with the operation of the new system - the report states.

In an email sent to the inspector on December 9th, Janković explained that “during operation, clogging occurred in the hydraulic lines for slag removal from the boiler to the basin for collecting the hydraulic mixture of slag and water at the excavator station”.

- ... The problem arose as a result of water separated from the hydrocyclone leaving fine-grained slag that settles in the collection basin. A large quantity of these particles prevents the proper operation of high-pressure pumps, significantly weakening the entire hydraulic slag transport system. The pumps draw in slag together with water, leading to a drastic decrease in efficiency and the inability to achieve the intended function of transporting slag from the boiler to the basin at the excavator station. This also results in clogging of the transport lines - Janković wrote to the inspector.

CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS

Independent councillor in the Municipal Assembly of Pljevlja Saša Ječmenica and civil engineer Nenad Rubežić filed a criminal complaint yesterday with the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office over the illegal commissioning of the Thermal Power Plant for trial operation following the ecological reconstruction, i.e. the falsification of documents.

They are categorical that this directly led to severe air pollution and the endangerment of public health.

The criminal complaint was filed against the managers of the ecological reconstruction project and the adaptation of the boiler and chimney - Ljubiša Janković, Slavenko Drobnjak and Olga Radulović - as well as against the executive head of Production Miro Vračar and the technical director of Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCM) Ljubiša Đurković. They also reported Bojan Đordan, who at the time the Thermal Power Plant was put into trial operation - on 30th November - was acting executive director of EPCM. The complaint also refers to “other responsible persons within EPCM”.

Ječmenica and Rubežić state in the complaint that “responsible persons on 28th of November 2025 signed the EPCM document ‘Consent for putting part of the TPP Pljevlja facility into trial operation’”, and that the document contains incorrect information, namely that the facility and accompanying equipment were in proper condition.

They also referred to the report of the thermal energy inspector, who identified serious deficiencies during the inspection.

Ječmenica and Rubežić emphasize that by putting an unfinished facility into trial operation, without connected desulfurization and denitrification plants, uncontrolled emissions of large quantities of sulfur dioxide and other pollutants occurred.

They pointed out that in the period from the 10th to the 15th of December extreme air pollution was recorded in Pljevlja, and that on December 13th the concentration of sulfur dioxide reached an “incredible 805 µg/m³.”

They are categorical that EPCM abused the concept of trial operation in order to put a facility that was not fully completed into operation for an indefinite period, without the legally required permit. In this way, they argue, EPCM obtained unlawful benefit through the production and sale of electricity, while simultaneously causing long-term endangerment to the health of the citizens of Pljevlja.

They are calling for urgent action to prevent further environmental pollution and threats to the health and lives of the population.

On December 17th the President of URA Dritan Abazović also filed a criminal complaint for the criminal offense of environmental pollution and abuse of official position. He submitted the complaint to the Special State Prosecutor’s Office against the President of the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Company Milutin Đukanović, members of the Board, as well as Executive Director Zdravko Dragaš and the Minister of Energy and Mining Admir Šahmanović.

At the protest organized on December 17th in Pljevlja by civic activist Pavle Čolović participants demanded the shutdown of the Thermal Power Plant until its complete ecological reconstruction.