Bosnia's Ugljevik 82 mln euro desulphurisation project nears completion

The new facility will launch test operations in November, as planned, while all activities on the project should be wrapped up by March 2020, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The new unit will extend the plant's lifespan until 2035 and will help Bosnia meet the environmental requirements for joining the EU.

"This has been the largest investment in this part of the Serb Republic in the past more than 30 years, while the process of desulphurisation used to be the largest and most complicated problem for the thermal power plant," the Republic's energy minister Petar Djokic said, as quoted in a statement. Djokic visited the plant operator, RiTE Ugljevik complex, on Monday, discussing its operations and checking the progress on the installation of the flue gas desulphurisation unit, which will be the first of its type in the Western Balkans.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation has said it would deliver a control system for the flue gas desulphurisation system that is being installed at Ugljevik.

The project is managed by Yokogawa GmbH, Yokogawa's subsidiary in Austria, and Central East Europe and Ogranak Yokogawa Europe Branches Beograd, the Serbian office of Yokogawa Europe.

Djokic also said that since the loan repayment will require significant funds on the part of RiTE Ugljevik, in the coming month or two the Serb Republic will ask the Japanese government to reschedule the loan, thus allowing more time for the completion of the financial consolidation of RiTE Ugljevik and its parent company, state-controlled power producer Elektroprivreda RS.

The 300-MW lignite-fired Ugljevik power plant is located in northeastern Bosnia. Its capacity of 300 MW represents a quarter of the total power generation capacity of the Serb Republic, one of Bosnia's constituent entities. The other is the Federation.

(1 euro = 1.95583 marka)