The supervisory board of Serbian state-owned power utility EPS has decided that
steps should be taken to roll back funding provided by the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the construction of six small hydro
power plants (SHPPs), EPS said.
In late 2011, the EBRD lent 45 million
euro ($56.8 million) to EPS to refurbish 15 SHPPs with a combined capacity of 18
megawatts (MW) and to build seven new ones on existing dams witha combined
capacity of 13 MW.
After the relevant conditions were reviewed and it was
established that the construction of six SHPPs was not feasible, it was decided
to seek to cancel the utilization of a 12.3 million euro portion of the EBRD
credit.
It was also agreed to request that the deadline for the drawdown
of the remainder be extended until the end of 2018, EPS said in the September
edition of its in-house newsletter.
EPS added that since neither
technical paperwork nor a review of all the conditions for the implementation of
the project were prepared prior to the signing of the loan agreement it is now
necessary to revise the project accordingly.