Nova Zeljezara Zenica (NZZ), through its lawyer Suad Slipcevic from Sarajevo, has sent a new notice announcing the disconnection of the illegal connection of the Public Enterprise “Grijanje” Zenica to the electrical network of that company, which should take place on February 6th.
Ultimately, this would also mean the cessation of heating for the city from the new gas heating plant, jointly owned by NZZ (80 percent) and the City of Zenica (20 percent), which, according to the earlier plan, was supposed to happen more than two days ago. They point out that this was abandoned so that the citizens of the city would not suffer the consequences.
NZZ (a company created last year through the purchase of ArcelorMittal Zenica) warned again in a letter sent two days ago that, over the past three years, direct financial damage in the amount of 2.268.746 BAM has been caused to them through what they consider a disputed and illegal connection in the facility of the old Thermal Power Plant.
The electrical energy needed for the operation of the Public Enterprise “Grijanje” system, they emphasize, is taken from the NZZ network, but without a legal basis and a signed contractual obligation, and therefore they have no obligation to supply Public Enterprise “Grijanje” with electrical energy.
JP “Grijanje”, which only distributes heat to the citizens of the city, has, for years, they claim, been illegally connected to their electrical network, for which it does not have the necessary permits or an installed metering point, that is, an electricity consumption meter.
All of this, they note, has been recorded multiple times through inspection controls, letters, and warnings that they have been sending since 2018. Public Enterprise “Grijanje”, they emphasize, has on several occasions been invited to obtain the necessary permits from the power distribution company, to install a meter, and to regulate supply in accordance with the law, but this has never been done, and the latest warning was sent to them on January 23rd of this year.
A meeting of representatives of NZZ, Public Enterprise “Grijanje”, and the City of Zenica, which, they point out, was supposed to be held on January 29th, was not held due to the absence of Mayor Fuad Kasumovic, although, as they claim, his attendance had been confirmed. NZZ has scheduled a new meeting of the same participants for February 2nd or 3rd, when a solution to this problem should be found.
The notice, along with accompanying documentation and inspection findings, was delivered not only to the address of Public Enterprise “Grijanje” Zenica, but also to the Mayor of the City of Zenica, the Zenica City Council, the Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs, the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of the Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDC), the Prosecutor’s Office of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the ministries of internal affairs of the ZDC and the FBiH, as well as the company Toplana d.o.o.
All those to whom this notice was addressed were invited to, within their competencies and without delay, influence the Management of Public Enterprise “Grijanje” and the mayor, “since they have been avoiding resolving the subject problem for years,” to take other appropriate measures within their jurisdiction with the aim of mitigating damage.
The notice also underlines that it is very concerning that Public Enterprise “Grijanje” and the City of Zenica last year directly linked the increase in heating prices for the residents of the City of Zenica to the increase in electricity prices, “even though you were aware that you were partly illegally taking electrical energy from the steelworks’ network,” it is stated.
