The Government of the Republic of Srpska (RS) has adopted a decision on granting the concession for the construction and operation of hydropower plant Buk Bijela to a consortium established by power utility ERS and its subsidiary ―Hidroelektrane na Drini.
The concession is granted for a period of 50 years and the estimated value of the investment is around 195 million euros. The concession contract should be signed in the following days and the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining Petar Djokic said that the activities on the construction of 93.52 MW HPP Buk Bijela will begin soon. The amount of one-time concession fee, which has to be paid after the conclusion of the concession contract, is around 390,000 euros, while regular usage fee amounts to 3.6 % of the annual revenues generated by performing the concession activities.
In September 2012, the Government of RS and German company RWE-Innogy signed the contract on strategic partnership for development, construction and operation of four hydropower plants on upper part of Drina river. However, in May 2013 the Government terminated the contract due to the fact that strategic partner did not meet the terms of agreement. In order to revitalize the project for the construction of HPP Buk Bijela in upper Drina basin, in the beginning of February 2016, ―Hidroelekrane na Drini‖ and ERS have formed a consortium and sent a concession bid to the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining of the Republic of Srpska, transmits Serbia-energy.eu