February 20 (SeeNews) - North Macedonia's government said on Thursday that it has invited expressions of interest in a concession contract for the construction of the Cebren hydro electric power plant (HPP) in cooperation with state-owned electricity company ESM.
Thus far, seven foreign companies have requested to receive the documentation for the pre-selection phase, prime minister Oliver Spasovski said in a statement.
The construction of the HPP on the Crna Reka river will likely cost up to 570 million euro ($615.3 million), which will be provided solely by the private investor. The power plant will have an installed capacity of 333 MW, allowing it to produce 1,000 GW of electricity per year.
As part of the public-private partnership, ESM will import another power plant located on the Crna Reka river, HPP Tikves, into the project company. The two power plants will use water from the same source and can only function at the same time if they are managed by a single entity.
ESM-owned power plants currently produce 4,000 GW of electricity per year.
The deadline for submitting expressions of interest is April 3.
($ = 0.9264 euro)