Bosnia's Serb Republic to launch HPP Buk Bijela construction in 2018

BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), January 15 (SeeNews) – The energy ministry of Bosnia's Serb Republic said the construction of the 93.52 MW Buk Bijela hydro power plant (HPP) will begin in 2018 and should cost an estimated 400 million marka ($250.7 million/204.5 million euro).

"HPP Buk Bijela is the most important facility we will start building this year. To date, two Chinese companies have expressed their interest and prepared bids for the project," the Serb Republic energy minister, Petar Djokic, said in a statement published by the ministry on Friday.

The HPP will be entirely owned by the power utility of the Serb Republic, Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske, Djokic noted.

Buk Bijela will be Bosnia's largest HPP in terms of installed capacity, reservoir size and mean outputs, and will be built in the municipality of Foca on the Drina river.

Djokic noted that the entity is currently arranging financing.

"We are currently considering certain options coming from our financial partners - Chinese banks and companies," he said.

The minister added that in the next six to seven year, some 2.3 billion marka will be invested in the energy sector in the Herzegovina region of the Serb Republic.

The Serb Republic is one of two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other is the Federation.

(1 euro=1.95583 marka)

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