Bosnia's RiTE Ugljevik to start power supply to Slovenia on Feb 1

HSE signed a contract for the commencement of electricity supply and the payment of a 67 million euro ($72 million) court-determined compensation by RiTE Ugljevik in seven equal annual installments starting on June 30 for electricity not delivered to Slovenia in past years, the Slovenian holding company said in a statement on Tuesday.

RiTE Ugljevik will deliver 500 GWh of electricity to Slovenia annually, sufficient to meet the needs of 123,000 Slovenian households, and the deliveries will be facilitated through Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske (ERS), the power utility of Bosnia's Serb Republic, HSE said.

Negotiations among the companies are ongoing to address issues related to the payment of outstanding interest, a payment linked to claims in the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In November, a Belgrade arbitration court ordered RiTE Ugljevik to pay a 67 million euro compensation to Elektrogospodarstvo Slovenije, the predecessor of HSE, for electricity not delivered in the period from June 2011 to December 2021, plus associated interest and costs of the proceedings in the total amount of 58.2 million euro.

The companies are also holding negotiations to address the issue of non-supply of electricity in the period from January 1, 2022 onwards, HSE added.

Elektrogospodarstvo Slovenije co-financed the construction of the Ugljevik coal-fired power plant in the 1980s and was receiving electricity from it until 1991 when the wars in Bosnia and Croatia broke out.

($ = 0.92514 euro)