Director of “Elektrokrajina” Banja Luka Seka Kuzmanovic and CEO of “Toshiba” in Genova Sam Zadeh signed last week in Banja Luka 10 MEUR worth contract for the rehabilitation of the distribution network and expansion of the existing system for remote meter reading and consumption management / AMM system /.
The signing was attended by the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of Republic of Srpska, Zeljko Kovacevic.
Kuzmanovic told reporters in Banja Luka, after signing the contract, that the project should begin this year, if weather conditions permit, and that it should be implemented over the next three years.
She noted that the project will reduce distribution losses and expenses caused by poor network, and supply customers with electricity better.
“In the implementation of the project, except for the workers of Elektrokrajina, also employees of enterprises engaged in the rehabilitation and construction of medium voltage and low voltage networks in our area will be involved,” said Kuzmanovic.
According to her, this project should employ about 300 workers.
“This is a very important project for us. It will be implemented in the Prijedor area, Laktasi, Mrkonjic Grad, Sipovo and Ribnik. It will include about 100 transformer areas with all the medium-voltage and low-voltage networks, and in remote metering project 12,000 customers will be introduced in these areas”, explained Kuzmanovic.
She added that the funds are provided by the Investment and Development Bank of the Republic of Srpska.
General Director of “Toshiba” in Genova, Sam Zadeh, said that this project will bring many benefits to the industry and the population of the Republic of Srpska, it will help reduce the cost of electricity, and the introduction of modern technology will come down technical losses to a minimum.
“This project will provide the opportunity to Elektrokrajina and Electric Power Industry of the Republic of Srpska to prevent the illegal use of electricity and will make a huge saving of electricity,” said Zadeh.
He pointed out that the realization of this project will provide voltage stabilization in the overall network in order to deliver more electricity in a constant voltage to the end user at any time.
Zadeh said that this is the first phase of the project which will be implemented in five municipalities, and the plan is to introduce the project to the entire Republic of Srpska. The second phase of the project should cost 60 MEUR, and the final project around 300 MEUR.
“An important part of the project is a system for storing electricity, which will energy generated from renewable sources and solar systems inject into the system and deliver it to users at no cost,” explained Zadeh.
He said that it is a modern technology which is new in Europe, and the Republic of Srpska will be the first country in South Eastern Europe to use this system.
“In this project we shall also include technological institutes and universities in Srpska, to create opportunity for people to be trained. The technology will be brought into the country, so that we can better train them for future cooperation by more intensive cooperation with Elektrokrajina and Electric Power Industry of the Republic of Srpska”, said Zadeh.
He stressed that for Srpska this project will be profitable in a few years.
Source; Serbia Energy SEE desk
