Bosnia's Power Plant to Start $87.6 mln Cleanup
Bosnia's 300 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant Ugljevik said on Tuesday it had signed a 79 million euro ($87.6 million) deal with a consortium led by Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems to help it reduce gas emissions and meet EU norms.
The flue gas desulphurisation project will reduce the emission of SO2 from its current level of around 16,000 milligramme per cubic metre (mg/m3) or 60 times more than the indicative amount in the European Union (EU) regulations, to 250 mg/m3, the project manager Zlatko Malovic told Reuters.
The project, which is due to start next month and wrap up in early 2019, will also extend the plant's lifespan by 25 years, he said. It will be financed by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The Ugljevik power plant is operated by Bosnia's second-biggest power utility Elektroprivreda RS and generates 8 percent of the country's electricity.
Bosnia formally applied for membership of the EU in February and must carry out a series of reforms before the application can be considered.
The Balkan country's ageing power plants, which produce 60 percent of its electricity, face tighter pollution rules from the beginning of 2016 as part of the EU-wide Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).
(Reporting by Maja Zuvela)
