Belgrade, 29 Oct 2010 – General Director of the Serbian electric power industry Elektroprivreda Srbije Dragomir Markovic and Director of the German Development Bank for Europe and the Caucasus Roland Siller signed a loan agreement for the revival of the Zvornik hydroelectric power plant.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Minister of Energy and Mining Petar Skundric, who told a press conference that the loan was obtained under favourable conditions and that the start of construction is expected in 2012.
With the rehabilitation of hydroelectric power, capacity will be increased from 96 to 120.4 megawatts, or by 25%, and electricity production from 477 million kilowatt hours to 551 kilowatt hours per year.
The entire project has been estimated at €95 million, the Minister said.
Markovic confirmed that the first unit of the revitalised Bajina Basta hydroelectric power station, which is also funded by a loan from KfW, will be put into operation next week.
He also pointed out that the first units of the revitalised Djerdap 1 plant will be released in a few months time, when power generation will be increased by more than 200 gigawatt hours per year.
Siller highlighted that EPS is the most important partner of KfW, whose projects it has financed for the past ten years with €300 million, in order to ensure the reduction of carbon dioxide by 600 tons per year.
Deputy Director at the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Ulla Mikota underlined that ecologically clean energy production and increasing energy efficiency are important for the European integration of Serbia.
She affirmed that yesterday the German government approved assistance to Serbia in the amount of €123.65 million, of which €45 million will be used for the power industry.
German Ambassador to Serbia Wolfram Maas outlined that since 2000 Germany has allocated about €470 million to facilitate reliable power supply in Serbia.
Maas emphasised that cooperation between Serbia and Germany in the energy sector will include the continuance of investing in the renewable energy sector.