November 9 (SeeNews) - Serbia's energy minister Aleksandar Antic has said the government plans to invest a total of $700 million (603 million euro) in the modernisation of the TE-KO Kostolac power generating and coal mining complex.
Serbia has already completed the first phase of the overhaul project, having invested $300 million in the upgrade of units 1 and 2 at the Kostolac B power plant, Antic said, according to a government press release issued on Wednesday.
In the second phase of the overhaul the government aims to increase the output capacity of the Drmno open-pit mine to 12 million tonnes annually from 9 million tonnes and to build a new, 350 MW power plant, Antic said.
In January, state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) said it has started a $123 million project for the installation of an excavator-conveyor-spreader (ECS) system in the Drmno mining basin. The company will complete the installation of the ECS, including a 12 km-long transport system, by 2019, Antic said back then.
TE-KO Kostolac operates two power plants, the 310 MW Kostolac A, and the 700 MW Kostolac B.
($ = 0.861953 euro)