The main part of the reconstruction of hydropower plant Vrutok within the Mavrovo hydro system has been completed, said General Director of North Macedonian state-owned power utility ESM Vasko Kovacevski.
Kovacevski said that the actions undertaken with this project will enable a drastic reduction of water losses, increase of production, protection from erosion of the surrounding area, as well as protection of the river Vardar. At the same time, the reconstruction will enable greater reliability and functionality of the power plant.
He said that issues with water losses in the accumulation were observed back in 2010, which gradually increased to the amount of 400 liters per second by the end of 2016. Therefore, in 2017, ESM launched a project for the reconstruction of HPP Vrutok.
Three years later, the majority of works on this, 3 million euros worth, project have been completed, thus enabling the plant to increase electricity generation by 17-18 GWh per year, which translates to between 0.6 and 0.7 million euros in revenues.