The Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System is a solvent company which, we can now say freely, did not end 2021 with a loss, despite unprecedentedly difficult operating conditions caused by the international surge in energy prices, something many may have wished for. This is a truth that the SD Secretary General and his party colleagues are evidently finding hard to accept.
For the public, we will reiterate once again that electricity to cover losses was procured for the period up to April 2021, while from May onwards, at the proposal of members of the previous management to the Board of Directors, electricity was procured on a monthly basis due to market disruption that was already evident at the time. This means that CEDIS’s new management had to procure around 50 per cent of the missing electricity quantities for the period from June to December. During 2020, the previous management failed to procure the full quantities of energy needed to cover losses for the following year—a first for CEDIS—and this happened precisely in a year when prices were exceptionally low due to the pandemic. Throughout 2020, the exchange price remained below €55/MWh, and for a significant part of the year it was considerably below the regulator-approved price for 2021 of €53.392/MWh, even falling below €45/MWh.
Disruptions in the electricity market began in early in the second quarter of 2021, when exchange prices were already significantly above the regulator-approved price, meaning that at no point could long-term contracts be concluded at a price below €80/MWh. At the time, it was difficult to justify the decision to procure energy for a longer period at a price significantly higher than the regulator-approved price. This business decision was also logical, given that concluding long-term contracts requires the exchange price to be at least close to the regulator-approved price, as it was throughout 2020 and in early 2021. The rise in electricity prices that followed in the subsequent months was unprecedented, with prices reaching over €550/MWh during a certain period.
We also note that CEDIS, as a distribution system operator, carries out a regulated activity, which is why management did not expose the Company to exchange risks at any point, but instead worked intensively to mitigate the consequences of the global energy crisis. It is no secret that, like CEDIS, other European electricity distribution systems are facing the consequences of disruption in the electricity market, and that, as in Montenegro, the current problems are being addressed with broader—i.e. state—support, given the severity of the crisis.
CEDIS management, regardless of how much some political entities may not wish to see or accept it, has acted and will continue to act in the best interests of the company, its employees and our customers. Pressure, malicious attempts, obstruction, and attempts to manipulate the public with falsehoods will not deter us from continuing to implement our planned activities.
Fortunately for the company, its employees and the citizens of Montenegro, for whom we exist, CEDIS is not in the mud and will not be, because it has a responsible management structure. In fact, those who speak of mud are the ones who will never climb out of the mire of incompetence and manipulation. We need only recall the millions in damage caused to the state by a forgotten road interchange, as well as the former president’s false testimony in court in the “Ramada” case, when state resources were abused for party purposes, while now they are nursing grievances over the ideological affiliation of close relatives—and even know how to invoke their grandmother’s brothers.
