The “Buk Bijela” hydropower plant will be built by one of the three Chinese companies that are currently alone in the race for this project worth 250 million euros. This will be the third capital energy facility that the Republika Srpska entrusted to Chinese companies.
HPP “Buk Bijela” is a joint venture between “Elektroprivreda Republika Srpska” and “Elektroprivreda Srbije” and is part of the Gornja Drina hydropower system project, which, in addition to this one, foresees the construction of two more hydropower plants.
The complete project will be financed in the ratio of 51 percent “Elektroprivreda Srbije”, 49 percent “Elektroprivreda Republika Srpska”, which is the share of co-ownership in the joint company “HEP Gornja Drina”.
The contractor should also provide financing
According to our information, there were a dozen companies in the option, of which only three Chinese companies submitted concrete offers at the end. The lowest offer worth 248 million euros was submitted by “Dongfang Electric Corporation”. The offer of the company “Power China” weighs 263 million euros, while the offer of the company “Energy China” is one million more expensive and amounts to 264 million euros.
Both the Government of the RS and the Government of Serbia will provide a guarantee for the return of the loan, and it will be decided later who will guarantee for what amount. “When it comes to the actual construction project of HPP “Buk Bijela”, preparatory work is underway and should be finished by the end of September, when the location would be ready for general works,” says Baštinac.
Disputes hold up the project
Also, what is slowing this project down are two disputes that are being fought in parallel.
One is being conducted before the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, at the request of 24 members of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, determined in mid-2021 that there is a dispute regarding decisions on concessions, i.e. the fact that the Republika Srpska granted a concession for the construction of HPP Buk Bijela on the Drina River in the municipality Focha.
The MPs from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina who submitted the appeal were disputable that the concession is awarded by the Republika Srpska, and not by the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because it is, as they claimed, an “interstate” project. After establishing that there are legal dilemmas, the Constitutional Court ordered the BiH Concessions Commission to resolve the dispute within three months.
Since that deadline was not met, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina extended the deadline to the Commission, but it failed to complete its work and transferred everything to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose decision is still pending. Also, a dispute is pending before UNESCO, which was initiated by Montenegro regarding the potential violation of the protected area of Durmitor.
According to reports from Montenegro, the protected area of Durmitor would be damaged by the construction of the Buk Bijela Hydroelectric Power Plant in Foča. The value of the first hydroelectric power plant, ie HPP “Buk Bijela”, is about 250 million euros, while the value of the total investment is estimated at about 520 million euros.
Environmentalists against the construction of hydropower plants
The Center for the Environment of Banja Luka says that they discussed this project with representatives of the local community and RS institutions in order to get an idea of how much the project itself is of public interest, but also how much it will harm the environment.
They say that the location of this HPP and the other two that are also planned to be built is in the upper basin of the Drina River, which is one of the most important natural resources in the RS.
“We are absolutely against that project due to the fact that we have enough electricity as well as hydropower facilities. What we lack is solar and wind energy, and we especially lack solar energy that citizens can produce themselves,” Vladimir Topić from the Center for the Environment said.
The Chinese are also building HPP “Dabar”
This HPP is the third major energy project that the Chinese are working on in Republika Srpska.
We remind you that at the end of June, after several delays, the construction of the “Dabar” hydroelectric power plant, which is also being built by the Chinese company Gezuba Group, began on a turnkey basis.
The contract for this project, worth 338 million euros, was signed in May 2020.
The Government of Republika Srpska gave a guarantee for 85 percent of the value of the contract, while Elektroprivreda RS paid 15 percent, as well as other fees. The construction of HPP is financed by the Export-Import Bank of China. The total value of HPP “Dabar” is estimated at around 660 million KM.
The general director of “Elektroprivreda RS” Luka Petrović said earlier that the deadline for completing the works is 46 months. In addition to the “Dabar” HPP, Chinese companies are also building the “Bistrica” hydroelectric power plant in Foča.
The foundation stone for the start of construction works on the construction of hydroelectric power plants on the Bistrica River was laid on December 27, 2021, in the presence of the Prime Minister of the RS Radovan Višković and the Minister of Energy and Mining of the RS Petr Đokić, without the necessary construction and environmental permits, as well as without money for construction.
The construction of the energy system of the Bistrica hydroelectric power plant, which will consist of three power plants, will cost a total of 102 million euros, and the money for the construction should be provided by the investor, the company “Hidroelektrane Bistrica”, which is majority owned by “Hydroelektrana na Drina”.
“HE na Drina” as an investor had a lot of problems to secure money for that project, and this is still one of the big problems that can be seen at the Shareholders’ Assemblies of this company.
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