Director of coalmine and thermal power plant (RiTE) Stanari Simo Mirkovic said that the company achieved record financial results in 2022, with a net profit of 44.7 million euros and revenues of 137.5 million euros. Mirkovic also said that the power plant produced a record amount of electricity last year – 2.128 TWh, with about 3.8 million tons of coal and more than 14.5 million cubic meters of overburden excavated at the nearby coalmine. He said that the entire profit from last year, this year, and probably next year, will be invested in new projects, opening a new open pit mine, equipment renewal and works on technical improvements of the facilities.
Unlike other two coal-fired TPPs (Gacko and Ugljevik) in the RS, which are operated by stateowned ERS and sell most produced electricity on the domestic market to cover the consumption, TPP Stanari exports all the electricity it generates.
TPP Stanari is the first private investment in large conventional power production facility in former Yugoslavia. The project started in 2004, when UKbased EFT Group was selected as the best bidder on the international tender for the selection of strategic partner for coalmine Stanari. Since the demand of lignite in the region was in decline, EFT decided to build a thermal power plant near the coalmine. Initial plans envisaged the construction of 400 MW unit that was supposed to produce some 3 TWh of electricity per year, project was financially supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the equipment was to be delivered by French Alstom.
However, the final agreement was not reached, EFT turned to Chinese company Dongfang and reduced the output of the plant to 300 MW, planned production to 2 TWh of electricity per year and gross efficiency from 43 % to 38.5 %. TPP Stanari was officially commissioned on 20 September 2016, the cost of the project totaled some 550 million euros, while most of the funds were provided by China Development Bank.
