Court orders EPS to cut SO2 emissions due to harm to human health, environment
Author: Vladimir Spasić
Earlier studies showed that thermal power plants in the Western Balkans emit 2.5 times as much SO2 as those in the EU, increasing air pollution in the region. The Renewables and Environment Regulatory Institute (RERI) filed a lawsuit against EPS in January 2021, following several requests for extraordinary inspection at its power plants because their SO2 emissions had drastically exceeded the maximum allowed amounts. The requests were rejected by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which claimed they were ungrounded, said RERI. Since January 2018, EPS has been under the obligation to reduce SO2 emissions from its facilities, in accordance with the National Emissions Reduction Plan (NERP), which Serbia committed to by ratifying the Energy Community Treaty. However, in 2018 and 2019 alone, the coal-fired power plants Nikola Tesla (TENT A and TENT B) and TE Kostolac emitted six times as much SO2 as they were allowed, and this trend continued in the following years, RERI stated.