On several occasions the opposition has criticized the project for the construction of unit 7 at thermal power plant Tuzla, which is backed by the current Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH). Most recent critics come from the President of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina Amer Jerlagic, who considers that this is an expensive project which will cause the increase in the price of electricity by 32 %.
Jerlagic said at the press conference that the project is not good from political, economic and energy aspects. He stressed that the project will be entirely controlled by Chinese companies and that only a small number of local companies will be included in the construction of the new unit at TPP Tuzla.
From the economic point of view, Jerlagic said, it is enormously expensive, unprofitable and unfeasible project, especially in terms of today‘s electricity prices on the European markets, which are almost twice cheaper than electricity produced by the new unit (which is estimated at about 55 euros/MWh). Regarding the energy aspect of the project, he said that the time is not right and the signing of the agreement with the Chinese should be delayed for a year or two. Some renegotiations should be done on the project as well, since some similar projects in the region have been agreed for much less money.
Last month, Director of EPBiH Bajazit Jasarevic said that the representatives of Chinese Exim Bank want to make a business insight of EPBiH, adding that he is certain of positive outcome and expects that loan agreement could be signed in November. However, Jasarevic explained that unit 7 at TPP Tuzla will not be profitable due to extremely low electricity prices in the region.
TPP Tuzla has 6 units with overall output of 715 MW. New unit 7 will be replacement capacity for units 1 and 2 (32 MW each), which have already been shut down and units 3 (100 MW) and 4 (200 MW) which should be put out of operation in 2018. The future unit 7 will have 450 MW of electric output combined with 300 MW of heat output, with annual generation of 2.75 TWh. When unit 7 is completed, it will provide almost a quarter of electricity produced by EPBiH. Total investment in unit 7 is over 722 million euros, of which 85 % will be obtained through a loan and 15 % will be financed by EPBiH‘s own resources.
