Bosnia and Herzegovina: Podvelezje wind farm to be mostly completed by the end of 2020

Published on 25. September 2020., SEE Energy News

Executive Director for Capital Investments at power utility EPBiH Senad Salkic said that the necessary equipment for all 15 wind turbines has been delivered to the port and is awaiting transport to the construction site. Along with the transportation, works on the installation of wind turbines will be performed, so it is expected that most of the works will be completed by the end of the year and start trial operation in the first quarter of 2021.

Last month, EPBiH said that it has connected the newly built 110/30 kV substation, which is a part of a project for the construction of Podvelezje wind farm, to the electricity network. The construction of the substation, subcontracted to Croatian company ABB, was worth around 4.7 million euros and also included the installation of 40 kilometers of underground power cables. The statement from EPBiH also said that the foundations for 10 wind turbines have been completed, while the concreting of the remaining 5 is in progress. In June, EPBiH announced that the first of 15 foundations for wind turbines at its 48 MW Podvelezje wind farm project has been completed, adding that the concreting of all 15 foundations for wind turbines will be completed by the end of August. The construction of the first wind farm in company’s portfolio started in early May. The contractor for the construction of the wind farm is a consortium of Croatian subsidiary of Siemens Games and Danish Wind Power. The project for the construction of Podvelezje wind farms envisages that the future power plant will have installed capacity of 48 MW and annual generation of some 115 GWh of electricity. This will be the first state-owned wind farm build in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the biggest post-war investment by EPBiH. The initial estimate was that the project should be finished by the end of 2019 and it will be operated under the 30-years concession contract, with an extension option. The value of the investment is estimated at 82 million euros and the funding will be provided through a loan by the German KfW Bank. Last year, project’s manager Semir Nurkovic said that EPBiH expects to commission the wind farm in February 2021.

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