January 24 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government is considering construction of hydropower plants (HPPs) on the Ibar and Morava rivers in order to modernise the country's electricity generation sector, energy minister Aleksandar Antic has said.
The new hydro power plants will have capacity of 120 MW and 150 MW, Serbia's state-owned power utility EPS quoted Antic as saying in a press release on Tuesday.
The government also intends to launch an overhaul of the fifth turbine of Djerdap 1 HPP, on the Danube river
EPS is a leader in terms of investments in the Western Balkans, as the projects which the company is currently carrying out have a total value of 1.5 billion euro ($1.85 billion), Antic said.
"This is important not only for EPS, but also for the entire Serbian economy."
EPS plans to invest 600 million euro in the overhaul of its HPPs until 2025, Aleksandar Jakovljevic, head of the corporate strategy department at the company, said in August.
The modernisation projects will allow the company to increase the installed capacity of its hydro power plants by some 166 MW from the current 3,000 MW, Jakovljevic said.
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