December 19 (SeeNews) - The U.N.-run Serbian province of Kosovo will launch a 9.5 million euro ($13.66 million) government-funded upgrade of a main electricity transformer in April, the province's Transmission System and Market Operator (KOSTT) said.
Under the project, a 220/110 kV transformer at Kosovo’s oldest coal-fired power plant Kosova will be upgraded, KOSTT said in a statement published on its website.
The project will be implemented by German electronics and engineering giant Siemens and is due to be completed in December.
KOSTT is a fully-owned subsidiary of Kosovo’s power utility KEK.
Kosovo has two power plants. Kosova A, built in 1975, has five generation units with a total installed capacity of 800 MW. According to a study prepared by the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) some 150 million euro would be needed to overhaul the units and prolong their operational life by up to 10 years. The 700MW Kosova B, with two units, was constructed in the 1980s. The lifetime of its units expires in 2026.
Legally still part of Serbia, Kosovo has been under U.N. administration since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces amid inter-ethnic fighting. Serbs oppose any form of independence for the province, while Kosovo's 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority insists on it.
The U.N. Security Council is due to discuss the Kosovo question on Wednesday. The Council remains divided on the issue.
($=0.6952 euro)