Serbian state power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije, or EPS, has begun another procurement step for its planned 660 MW Bistrica pumped-storage hydropower plant, moving one of the country’s largest prospective energy investments closer to an international construction tender.
EPS is seeking a consultant to review and harmonise tender documentation prepared for the project and ensure that it complies with procurement procedures of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA.
Offers are due by Oct. 6, while the selected consultant is expected to have 10 months to complete the assignment.
The Bistrica project, whose investment value has been estimated at around €1.2 billion, is designed to provide Serbia with large-scale electricity storage and flexible generation capacity.
The consultancy tender is not yet a construction award.
But it represents an important transition from engineering preparation towards the procurement framework that would ultimately allow EPS to select contractors under rules acceptable to prospective Japanese financing.
That makes Bistrica increasingly relevant to Serbia’s power-market strategy.
The rapid development of wind and solar generation across Serbia and the wider Balkans is increasing the value of flexible resources capable of absorbing surplus electricity during low-price periods and generating when demand and prices rise.
Pumped storage performs that function at system scale.
Water is pumped to an upper reservoir when electricity is abundant and released through turbines when the system needs additional generation.
For Serbia, that capability could become more valuable as intermittent renewable output expands and electricity prices become increasingly volatile.
The country’s energy strategy is already developing several forms of flexibility simultaneously.
EPS and the government are advancing battery-storage projects, additional renewable generation and the proposed gas-fired power project near Niš, while the transmission system is preparing for substantially higher volumes of wind, solar and standalone battery capacity.
Bistrica would occupy a different position in that portfolio.
Batteries can respond extremely quickly and are particularly useful for balancing and short-duration services. Gas-fired generation can provide dispatchable thermal capacity.
A large pumped-storage plant can move much larger volumes of energy across longer periods while also providing system reserves and grid-support functions.
That could make Bistrica one of Serbia’s most strategically important power investments if renewable penetration rises as expected.
The project’s challenge is its scale.
A €1.2 billion hydro development requires complex civil engineering, environmental permitting, financing and procurement, while construction would take several years.
The new consultancy timetable also points to the likely sequencing.
With up to 10 months allocated merely to review and harmonise the procurement documentation, the main international tendering process could extend well into 2027 before construction commitments are finalised.
That exposes the project to risks including construction-price inflation, financing costs, hydrological assumptions and potential changes in equipment prices.
It also raises the importance of allocating geological, civil-engineering and performance risks clearly between EPS and future contractors.
For JICA and other lenders, procurement documentation will therefore be more than an administrative requirement.
It will determine how billions of euros of construction and performance risk are ultimately distributed.
The latest tender does not resolve those questions.
It does, however, move Bistrica another step away from being a long-discussed strategic concept and towards becoming a financeable and procureable infrastructure project.
For Serbia’s electricity market, that distinction is increasingly important.
As renewable capacity grows, storage is shifting from an optional addition to a central part of system planning.
Bistrica’s progress will show whether Serbia can translate that requirement into one of Southeast Europe’s largest new flexibility assets.
