Last night, four substations in the Municipality of Kolašin were vandalised, and the mineral oil used to ensure the transformer operates properly was stolen from them. The substations in question are Bare Kraljske, Drndari, Sunga and Drcka, leaving the part of the Kolašin Municipality supplied by these substations without electricity. All the substations are connected to the 10 kV Skrbuša overhead line. The incidents were reported last night to the Police Directorate – Kolašin Security Centre.
As it could not be established last night whether the transformers had been completely damaged as a result of this criminal act, this will be determined today. We note that transformers are damaged if the transformer oil is not completely drained or if they operate without it for an extended period. In addition, frequent cases of components being stolen from power facilities by unknown persons often cause prolonged interruptions to the electricity supply.
Unauthorised access to power facilities is extremely dangerous. For what is often a small material gain, individuals risk their lives, disrupt the regular electricity supply and cause material damage that far exceeds any potential benefit they might gain.
In the Municipality of Podgorica, as well as in other municipalities, protective doors and other protective components are stolen from substations almost every day. As a result, energised substations remain unsecured until the theft is discovered, posing an extreme danger to the public, particularly in urban, densely populated areas.
Given the frequency of thefts of components from power facilities, we expect the competent institutions to take all measures within their remit to identify and penalise those responsible for these acts.
CEDIS teams carry out unscheduled inspections of facilities and the network, but it is not possible to maintain constant surveillance of around 5,000 substations and more than 20,000 kilometres of overhead lines in Montenegro. The damage to CEDIS caused by such acts amounts to tens of thousands of euros. However, the greater problem is that the network is vandalised in this way and customers are left without electricity for extended periods.
