March 24 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's National Electricity Company (NEK) said that it expects to wrap up rehabilitation works on the Belmeken-Sestrimo-Momina Klisura hydropower complex by November so as to have the facility ready for operation for the 2023-2024 winter season.
The repair works are now in their final stage, NEK said in a press release on Thursday. They involve the dismantling of old equipment at hydro unit 5 at the Belmeken pumped-storage hydropower plant (PSHPP) and at hydro unit 1 at Sestrimo HPP.
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State-owned NEK started rehabilitation works at the complex in 2019 under a 19.9 million euro ($21.45 million) contract with a consortium comprising Czech company CKD Blansko, Croatia's Koncar-KET and Slovenia's Rudis. The complete overhaul involves the repair of existing equipment as well as project design and delivery of new equipment for the hydropower plants to ensure their operation for a period of at least 15 years.
The Belmeken-Sestrimo-Momina Klisura hydropower complex includes the 375-MW Belmeken plant, the 240-MW Sestrimo plant and the 120-MW Momina Klisura plant as well as the Belmeken reservoir and two equalising basins. The total generating capacity of the complex is 735 MW, with 104 MW capacity in pump mode.
In December, NEK received an extension to end-2023 on a grant by the EBRD-run Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF) to complete the repair of the hydropower complex. NEK is using a grant of 26 million euro to finance 70% of the total cost of the project, with the company contributing the remaining 30%.
($ = 0.9273 euro)
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