PODGORICA (Montenegro), November 27 (SeeNews) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said it is considering a 38 million euro ($57 million) loan to Montenegrin power utility EPCG.
“[The loan will] finance the purchase and installation of c.69,000 modern electricity meters and the associated infrastructure and software in the Montenegrin electricity distribution system,” the EBRD said in a statement on Thursday.
The installation aims to cut electricity losses in the network from 24% to 14%, the statement said. It will also assist in increasing bill collection from the current level of 90%.
The total cost of the project is 43 million euro, the EBRD said.
The loan is pending final review by the EBRD board on January 26.
The Montenegrin government owns 55% of EPCG, while a 43.7% is in the hands of municipality-owned Italian utility A2A, the statement said.
Montenegro sold in September 18.3% of EPCG to A2A for over 192 million euro. A2A has pledged to overhaul the company, raise its generation capacity by 90 megawatts, cut grid losses and generate 300 million euro in profit in the next five years.
($=0.6711 euro)