The first part of credit arrangement between Serbian Power Plants company Kostolac (“Termoelektrana i kopovi Kostolac”) and China began to be realized in 2012 and this is the year when other phase i.e. realization need to be affirmed in full context. The task is to sign a commercial contract for construction of the new block and it is intensively worked on.
-We are harmonizing technical specifications and arranging the final version of Performance Study so we suppose to have prepared all necessary documentation for making a loan agreement in autumn- explained Dragan Jovanovic, Director of “TE-KO Kostolac.
Revitalization of both blocks in TPP “Kostolac B”, railway construction, port, desulfurization system represent the first phase of Chinese arrangement. Construction of the new block is planned for second phase and complete documentation should be prepared and all contracts will be signed by Serbian Government and Serbian energy company EPS (Elektroprivreda Srbije).
609 million EUR is predicted to be guaranty for this investment in Serbian budget in order to provide a new tranche of Chinese debt. I believe that EPS will use it because this is a good chance to get the first serious energy capacity in Serbia after 20 years. If everything goes as it was planned, the third block can be finished by 2019 and it will be able to begin to work in 2020. B3 block’s power is predicted to be 350 MW with all overcritical parameters and we are taking all efforts for it to be built according to EU standards for this kind of blocks including all modern technological solutions.
-Chinese loan is being realized on the base of national arrangement of Serbia and assets China intended to invest in foreign markets. Chine intended 10 billion dollars for South East Europe and we got little more than a billion. This is very profitable loan with 3% of fixed interest, grace period of 5 years and payoff deadline of 15 years. Block B3 will be able to pay off its investment when it starts to work if it is constructed under these conditions and therefore this credit is not the loan criticized by public because it is invested in creation of new value- Jovanovic stated.
-Geological research is being done in west part of Kostolac’s coal basin called Dubravica and 400 million tons of exploitation coal reservoirs are estimated to be found there. Furthermore, there is also good quality gravel in factory zone. These are very respectful resources that not suppose to be spare on. However, these coal reservoirs are not required for plants “Kostolac B”, not even when it gets one more block. There are more than 300 million tons of lignite reservoirs in “Drmno” excavation and this is enough to complete lifespan of all “Kostolac B” blocks- Dragan Jovanovic stressed.
Source;EPS/TeKo/Serbia Energy/ Danas
