Power plant unit to be built with Chinese partners

Power plant unit to be built with Chinese partners

BELGRADE -- The government has adopted an agreement on a second phase in upgrading Thermal Power Plants and Mines Kostolac (TE-KO Kostolac), in eastern Serbia.

A new 350 megawatt unit is to be added to the coal-fired power plant complex, n cooperation with Chinese partners.

Under the agreement, the production at the Drmno open-pit lignite mine is to be expanded from nine to 12 million tons of coal a year, Tanjug learned from TE-KO Kostolac on Monday.

The agreement will be signed by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang during a two-day a summit of leaders from central and eastern Europe and China that is starting in Belgrade today.

The document then needs to be ratified by the Serbian parliament.

The construction of the B3 unit at Kostolac will begin next year and take five years to complete, and it should be started in 2019, bringing Serbia its first new coal-fired power plant unit in nearly 30 years.

The total value of the upgrade project's second phase is EUR 715.6 million. The Chinese loan is bringing EUR 608 million, and the rest will be provided by Kostolac owner Public Enterprise PE Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS), the state-owned power company.

The first phase, including an overhaul of the B1 and B2 units and construction of a desulphurization unit and accompanying infrastructure facilities, is already underway.

The entire project is 85 percent funded by a Chinese loan of USD 1.06 billion, and the Serbian government and EPS is providing the remaining part.

The arrangement to modernize TE-KO Kostolac is based on an agreement on economic and...