Bosnia and Herzegovina’s electricity sector recorded a marked recovery in May, with gross production reaching 1,106 GWh, up from 830 GWh in the same month of 2025. The increase restored part of the country’s traditional export capacity, although the production structure remains heavily dependent on coal-fired generation and exposed to the operational condition of ageing thermal assets.
Thermal power plants accounted for 60 per cent of gross electricity output during the month, while hydropower contributed 27.3 per cent. Wind and solar plants supplied the remaining 12.7 per cent, demonstrating that renewable capacity outside large hydropower is becoming more relevant but is not yet large enough to displace coal as the principal source of system stability.
Net thermal generation reached 594 GWh, an increase of 4.4 per cent year on year. Hydropower production amounted to 281 GWh, slightly below the May 2025 level, while combined wind and solar output rose by 43.9 per cent to 141 GWh. The renewable increase was the strongest component of the monthly balance, reflecting new capacity and better utilisation of recently commissioned projects.
The improvement in domestic generation substantially changed Bosnia and Herzegovina’s cross-border position. Electricity imports fell by 28.6 per cent, from 500 GWh to 357 GWh, while exports increased by 31.7 per cent, from 489 GWh to 644 GWh. The country therefore returned to a net export position of approximately 287 GWh during May.
That trade result is economically important because Bosnia and Herzegovina remains one of the few Western Balkan electricity systems capable of generating recurring export surpluses. The value of those exports, however, is sensitive to hydrology, thermal plant availability and the widening carbon-cost difference between the Western Balkans and the European Union.
Coal production also recovered sharply. Lignite output reached 503,000 tonnes, representing a year-on-year increase of 71.7 per cent, while brown-coal production rose by 2 per cent to 449,000 tonnes. The figures suggest an improvement in fuel extraction compared with the unusually weak base of May 2025, but they do not remove the structural constraints affecting individual mining and generation complexes.
The continued outage at the Ugljevik thermal power plant illustrates the gap between aggregate coal statistics and fuel security at plant level. Higher national lignite production does not automatically translate into coal of the required quality, location and calorific value for each generating unit.
Natural-gas imports reached 9.61 million cubic metres, up 8.7 per cent from 8.84 million cubic metres a year earlier. Gas remains a relatively small part of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s energy balance, but the increase points to growing demand outside the electricity sector and continued dependence on imported supply.
May’s balance was therefore considerably stronger than a year earlier, driven by higher thermal output, expanding wind and solar generation and lower import requirements. The underlying export model nevertheless remains exposed to ageing coal plants, mine productivity, hydrological volatility and the gradual tightening of European carbon rules.
