The 225 MWe Pljevlja I lignite power plant has only one unit, and thus could not be subject to a National Emissions Reduction Plan. Since the plant generates around 40 per cent of Montenegro’s electricity, depending on the year, closing it looked unattractive. Therefore, the ‘opt-out’ option was chosen, in which Pljevlja I would be able to operate for a total of 20,000 hours between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2023. After that, it either had to close or to undergo a retrofit that would bring it into compliance with emission limit values for new plants, not existing ones. 

But Pljevlja I’s operating hours at the end of 2020 were already at 21,003 – breaching, therefore, the opt-out regime and the LCPD. In 2021, the plant operated for 6,450 hours, and in 2022 it worked for 6,949 more, and the same in 2023, totalling over 35,000 hours of operation since 2018, all without any investments in emissions reductions.

For this, in April 2021, the Energy Community Secretariat opened an infringement case against Montenegro, and in February 2023 it issued a reasoned opinion, followed by a reasoned request to the Ministerial Council in July 2023. The Ministerial Council still has not made a decision to confirm the breach of Treaty, despite it being a clear-cut case.

In 2025 the plant was mostly offline, as the retrofit works were being carried out. However, in its limited operating hours the plant continued to pollute. Its sulphur dioxide emissions amounted to 18,643 tonnes – less than half of the 2024 figure of 39,140 tonnes. Its dust emissions in 2025 decreased to 164 tonnes, compared to 793 tonnes in 2024. Its NOx emissions dropped to 1,670 tonnes, compared to 3,682 tonnes in 2024.