In the air tonight: visualising SO2 emissions from coal power plants in the western Balkans

At the end of June, a new Bankwatch report showed that sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions from coal power plants in the Western Balkans, which are included in National Emissions Reduction Plans,¹ breached the combined national ceilings by 6 times, for the second year in a row. 

However, the extent of the pollution is in fact even higher, as not all the existing plants in the five countries² are covered by these plans. Eight units are allowed to continue operating with no pollution control until the end of 2023 as long as they limit their operating hours. 

Continuous measurements and reporting of emissions only became mandatory as of January 2018, when the Large combustion Plants Directive entered into force in the Energy Community countries, but these levels of pollution have been around for decades, putting public health at risk and causing environmental havoc.

Grasping what a 600% breach of allowed SO₂ emissions means is not an easy job, but our data visualisation does just that. In addition to choking the communities where coal power plants are located, SO₂ pollution from the Western Balkans often reaches as far as Russia and the Black Sea Coast to the east and Germany to the West!

Governments of the Western Balkan countries have known since the signing of the Energy Community Treaty in 2005 that they need to take measures to limit the pollution from their coal combustion plants. And while SO₂ pollution in the European Union has been kept under wraps for ten years now, thanks to the very same policy and strict enforcement, in the Western Balkans only baby steps have been made towards compliance. Even those are not yet delivering results.

SO₂ reduction investments in the Western Balkans – a domino of failures

Serbia – Kostolac B and TENT A de-SOx – plenty of headlines, no results

Serbia’s energy utility secured financing for a complete overhaul of Kostolac B1 and B2 in December 2011. A USD 293 million loan was taken by the Government of Serbia on behalf of the energy company from China Exim Bank to, among others, equip the two units with de-SOx and bring the plant’s emissions in line with the legal obligations of the LCPD. 

The works were declared completed in 2017, but the plants’ emissions in 2019 were still at 79 113 tonnes, ten times above the legal annual ceiling of 7957.03 tonnes. There is no information available to the public about what is going on – is it a construction mistake, an operation flaw, a mix of both? 

At the Nikola Tesla A power plant a loan for a desulphurisation project was signed in 2011, but the announcement of the start of works only came in 2019 and according to the financing agency, Japan’s Export Credit Agency, the rehabilitation should only be finalised by 2022. 

Ugljevik, Bosnia and Herzegovina – 11 years of waiting in vain

Financed by a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed back in 2009, works on the de-SOx equipment started only in 2017 and test operation began in December 2019. We hoped that in 2020, SO₂ emissions would finally be significantly lower.

However in February 2020 it was revealed that there was a technical problem. The plant’s dust filters, overhauled three years ago by the Czech company Termochem, were not working properly, and their proper functioning is a precondition for desulphurisation. The EUR 83 million desulphurisation investment has been put in jeopardy.

Pljevlja, Montenegro – judgement clouded by nepotism?

The 40 year old plant is expected to undergo a full overhaul in 2021, bringing its emissions in line with the EU’s best available techniques. In November 2019 a consortium comprising China’s Dongfang and Montenegro’s BB Solar, Bemax and Permonte was chosen.

The choice raised eyebrows within Montenegro, especially for the significantly lower price compared to the other bids, but also as some of Dongfang’s staff were suspected by the Chinese government of accepting bribes from suppliers; BB Solar is half-owned by the President of Montenegro’s son, and Bemax is another well-connected company that often wins government contracts. One cannot help wonder if this project will have the same fate as Kostolac B and Ugljevik.

North Macedonia: all investments in pollution control on hold

Fitting a desulphurisation unit at the country’s largest coal plant, Bitola, is still stuck in the feasibility study phase, and according to the latest draft IPPC permit for the power plant, it is planned to be put into operation in December 2026. However, the National Energy Strategy adopted earlier this year, foresees a coal exit in 2025 in two out of three scenarios. This is probably why the Government isn’t keen on investing in SO₂ only to shut the plant in a couple of years, so the logical move would be reducing operating hours to get the emissions down.

Meanwhile, in just one year, SO₂ emissions from North Macedonia’s coal power plants have doubled. Total emissions in 2019 were 108,032 tonnes – twice as high as in 2018, when they were 53,855 tonnes. 

In a reaction to Bankwatch’s report, the North Macedonian energy company does not dispute the volume of SO₂ emissions in 2019 per se – which was nearly 7 times higher than the national ceiling – but is more fixated on the “wrong” use of the word “doubling”. 

The company’s response explains that the 2018 emissions were measured at longer intervals compared to 2019, which makes the margin for error in the calculations higher. According to them, this, in combination with the 20 per cent increase in operating hours should account for the higher volume of emissions. This makes one wonder how different the reported emissions will be after installing continuous measurements at the stacks– as required by the LCPD. 

Kosovo: No plans for desulphurisation

The ancient Kosova A plant has been planned for closure for years, but successive governments tried to delay this until the planned Kosova e Re plant was built. With this plan now cancelled, however, it is time to stop procrastinating and make a definitive plan for Kosova A. 

Given Kosovo’s near-complete dependence on coal, however, Kosova B will have to stay online for several more years. There is so far no clear plan to invest in bringing down SO₂ levels at the plant, as all eyes are on an ongoing investment to reduce the plant’s eye-watering dust emissions.

How bad is SO₂ for the environment and human health?

Sulphur dioxide is classified as very toxic for humans when inhaled. It can cause severe irritation of the nose and throat. High concentrations can cause a life-threatening accumulation of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary oedema). Symptoms may include coughing, shortness of breath, difficult breathing and tightness in the chest. Even a single exposure to a high concentration can cause a long-lasting condition like asthma. 

SO₂ is also responsible for the formation of acid rain. This impacts our environment by changing soil composition and damaging crops and by inducing changes in the chemistry of rivers and lakes, often in remote locations, which are linked to declines in the health of aquatic organisms.

What to do?

Such daunting data on emissions as well as such flagrant displays of neglect from all countries about proper spending of public money and compliance with laws calls for decisive and immediate action. Those responsible for failed projects, mis-reported emissions and disregard for the rule of law must be held accountable, for sure. But the pollution also needs to be cut, immediately.

In some cases this will mean installing desulphurisation equipment, but Kostolac B and Ugljevik have shown that this is not a risk-free option. It bears considerable costs, both for installation and operation, and in some cases it will be more viable to close the plants.

Until then, we rely on communities on the ground to report how these projects are moving forward, and on governments to finally enforce the law and and bring the operating hours down in order to decrease the exposure to such life threatening levels of SO₂. 

We also count on the Energy Community and European Commission to enforce large combustion plants legislation and penalise current and any further breaches, both directly and indirectly. Non-compliant plants should not be able to continue exporting electricity to the EU without paying their external costs, and EU funding support for the countries’ energy sectors must be made conditional on compliance with the Energy Community legislation.

¹A flexible implementation mechanism under the Large Combustion Plants Directive in the Energy Community whereby emissions can gradually be reduced by totalling their combined emissions and ensuring they are lower than the decreasing ceilings mandatory set for 2018, 2023, 2026 and 2027.
²Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Albania has no coal power plants.

The visualisation is based on atmospheric modelling with the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme Meteorological Synthesizing Centre – West (EMEP MSC-W) computer model, which is also used by the European Environment Agency for European Commission assessments of health impacts from air pollution in Europe.
Simulations and data visualization by Rosa Gierens and Lauri Myllyvirta.