Vrbas Heating Plant Not Ready, EPS Has 1.85M Tons of Coal
Ahead of the heating season EPS has 1.85 million tons of coal in stock, and Vrbas is the only heating plant in Serbia not ready. Jagodina and Kragujevac await a gas contract.
Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) currently has 1.85 million tons of coal at its depots, and that amount is supposed to reach two million tons by the start of winter, Ivan Gajic, assistant executive director of EPS for coal production and thermal energy, said on Thursday, October 8, 2026. He was speaking at the event “How Will We Heat Next Winter” at the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, where combined figures on the state of fuel supplies and heating plants were presented for the first time ahead of this heating season.
“Coal stocks at the depots currently stand at 1.85 million tons, with the goal of reaching two million tons by the start of winter, and sufficient quantities of fuel oil have also been secured”
That is how Gajic described the fuel situation, adding that overhauls in EPS’s mining sector have been completed.
How ready are EPS’s heat sources?
According to Gajic, the heat sources at the TENT and TE-KO Kostolac branches, which heat Pozarevac, Kostolac and Obrenovac, are ready for the start of the season. An overhaul of unit A1 was recently completed at Kostolac, and extended overhauls were carried out on the oldest units, A1 and A2, at TENT, so that the boiler piping systems would be prepared for winter. Overhauls in the thermal sector, he added, are nearing completion, which means the work is not entirely finished.
Gajic called the hydrological situation difficult: the Danube inflow is about 1,200 cubic meters per second, a historic low. EPS is offsetting this with the output of the revitalized Bajina Basta pumped-storage hydropower plant.
“EPS is overcoming these challenges thanks to the revitalized ‘Bajina Basta’ pumped-storage hydropower plant, which is operating at full capacity”
Gajic also announced further investment in hydropower: revitalization of the Vlasina hydropower plants has begun, and bids for the Bistrica pumped-storage project are being evaluated.
Where are heating plants still not ready?
Ivana Kalanja, chair of the Assembly of the Serbian District Heating Association, said the Vrbas heating plant is the only one that is currently not ready to operate, because of financial problems it has faced for years. In her words, that problem is being resolved, and the other heating plants are technically ready.
“We are working intensively on resolving that problem, and as for the other heating plants, they are fully ready technically. Cold functional tests are under way, in which the systems are checked and adjusted for the coming heating season. Fuel was contracted two days ago”
Still, the supply contract has not been signed everywhere. The heating plants in Jagodina and Kragujevac do not yet have a contract with Srbijagas, and Kalanja expects the matter to be settled by the end of the week. Dependence on gas is high: about 98% of heating plants in Serbia use natural gas as fuel.
What does the state say about gas and the grid?
Milan Aleksic, adviser at the Ministry of Mining and Energy for capital investments, said all reconstruction work on production and distribution capacity has been completed. “The systems are ready to ensure continuous supply to citizens throughout the year,” Aleksic said. It was also mentioned at the event that the heating season begins with gas reserves of 707 million cubic meters.
We have already reported that figure, along with the gas price of 76 euros. What is new from today’s event is data on the rest of the chain: coal, water and the heating plants themselves. For the cities with no Srbijagas contract, the end-of-week deadline is what to watch, because it determines whether the plants in Jagodina and Kragujevac start the season with gas secured. No date was given for when the Vrbas heating plant might be ready.
