November 16 (SeeNews) - Serbia and Bosnia's Serb Republic will invest a total of 500 million euro ($592 million) in the construction of three hydropower plants (HPPs) on Drina river over the next six years, the entity's prime minister Radovan Viskovic said.
The three HPPs will have a combined capacity of 180 MW, Viskovic said, as quoted in a statement of Bosnia's Serb Republic government.
In a video file posted on the website of Serbian public broadcaster RTS on Saturday, Serbian energy minister Zorana Mihajlovic said the plan is to start the construction of the Buk Bijela HPP in 2021, and then move forth with the two other HPPs.
In March 2019, EPS and ERS agreed to join forces in the construction of the 93 MW Buk Bijela HPP on the river Drina. In this way, the two companies extended their cooperation in the hydropower sector, as they previously agreed to build jointly the 44.5 MW Foca and the 43.2 MW Paunci HPPs, also on Drina river.
In June 2020, Viskovic said EPS and ERS agreed to establish a joint venture, HES Gornja Drina, for the construction of the three HPPs.
Serbia owns a 51% stake in the company while the Serb Republic owns 49%.
The Serb Republic is one of two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other is the Federation.
($ = 0.8441 euro)