Company Thermal Power Plants and Mines Kostolac is working on the second phase of the project of construction of a new unit Kostolac B3 in this plant. TEKO also works on expansion of production capacity of the open pit “Drmno”, which should enable the coal exploitation in this mine up to 2052nd.
“The project of a new unit of 350 MW will be implemented as part of an interstate loan arrangement between the Electric Power Industry of Serbia and Chinese state company CMEK”, said coordinator of the second phase of the project Zlatko Zakosek at the presentation, recalling that his value is 715.6 million dollars.
He said on the Energy Fair in Belgrade that the China Exim Bank would provide loan for funding this project, reminding that according the preliminary conditions loan is approved on 20 years with a seven-year grace period and an annual interest rate of 2.5 percent.
Zakosek said that an agreement on the second phase of Unit B was signed in November last year and late last year it was filed an application to Exim Bank on preferential terms, but that the process of loan approval was still in progress.
According to him, the new unit should be built for 58 months and should start to work in 2019th.
“The project is of great importance also for the Electric Power Industry of Serbia, but also for the Thermal power plant and mines Kostolac, because after twenty years it will be the first energy facility with more power and for the first energy unit built in the country after a long time”, said Zakosek.
Assistant Director of Thermal Power Plants and Mines Kostolac Miroslav Ivkovic said he would also work to expand the capacity of the open pit “Drmno” from nine to 12 million tons of coal per year by 2019th. “The total geological reserves of the mine ‘Drmno’ are about 400 million tons of coal reserves, exploitative reserves are about 290 million tons of coal”, he said. Ivkovic said that it was enough to supply all the units in Kostolac until 2052nd, when the youngest unit B3, which should be built yet, would stop to work.
