KEK director blames institutions for energy collapse

He says the alarm for reaching such a situation as the present one has warned him a year ago.

“It had to be alarming even earlier, when we announced that we have stopped operations because of the impasse or the inability to expand the mine towards the village of Shipitula (The Obilik Community), because of the unleg construction, before the excavors. Unfortunately, we in the next two weeks will come up with an emergency plan, which means we have to stop some generation units or have a limited generation, because of the limited opportunities or reserves we have for getting coal in that box”, Djuk said.

He explains that procedures for acquiring ownership of 52 hectares, which are private property, were initiated by KEK in 2012, but according to him, the specific institutions have neglected the space expropriation process, which is already an area of national interest. According to him, laws have already been violated, and there have been wild or unlegal construction in that area, which, as Djukka says, is aimed at the personal benefit of a certain group or person.

According to him, the responsibility for illegal construction in the area where the mine had to be extended is to have central and local institutions.

We start from municipal institutions to government institutions, including the Obilic municipality, the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, namely, the national Inspectorate for illegal construction”, Djukka said.

Musa Shaban, chairman of the Independent Commission for Mining and Mineral Board, says KEK has the license for mining exploitation in the area in which property expropriation problems have emerged.

This is a problem, actually, of the Government. As far as I know, the Government is already dealing with this issue”, Shaban said.

But despite the insistence on Kosovo's Ministry of Economic Development on the Exile Government, the ministry responsible for energy has refused to talk about the issue.

But are there alternative forms of electricity supply in case of facing an energy crisis?

Djuka says the Kosovo Energy Corporation is not responsible for that, because it has licenses only for generation of electricity.

“There have been months since we've notified the other parties, including the Bureau of Energy Regulatory (ZRRE) and other licenses that have responsibility for provision of citizens. Now we expect in the last two weeks to harmonise and make concrete decisions, depending on their decisions. But, KEK does not have that mandate and that option”, Djukka said.