Executive Director for Capital Investments at EPBiH Senad Salkic said that the construction site is almost completely ready and in the next few days will be handed over to Chinese partners to continue the implementation of this very project for EPBiH. Preparatory works for the construction of unit 7 at coal-fired thermal power plant Tuzla, which is an obligation of power utility EPBiH before handing over the construction site to Chinese contractor, are in the final phase.
The company’s expert team with representatives of partners from China, Chinese experts and engineers will start preparing the main project and obtaining the necessary permits for the construction of unit 7.
EPBiH launched the preparatory works for the project in November last year. In July 2019, EPBiH picked a local consortium consisting of three companies as the winner of a tender for preparatory works for new unit at TPP Tuzla, thus ending 2-year tendering procedure. The consortium, comprising ITC Zenica, Prijedorputevi and Integral Inzinjering offered a price of some 9.2 million euros to relocate an existing transmission power line, level the ground of the construction site and build a sewage system. It is planned that preparatory works will be completed within a year, but the construction of a new unit could start prior to that.
In November 2017, EPBiH signed a loan agreement with Chinese Exim Bank for financing the construction of unit 7 at TPP Tuzla on the sidelines of a meeting of the heads of Governments of China and 16 Central and East European countries held in Budapest. The net agreed price under the EPC contract is 722.35 million euros (without VAT). The maturity of the loan from China’s Exim Bank is 20 years, with a 5-years grace period. The loan will cover 85 % of the investment, while the remaining 15 % will be provided from EPBiH’s own funds. TPP Tuzla has 6 units with overall output of 715 MW. New unit 7 will be replacement capacity for units 1 and 2 (32 MW each), which have already been shut down and units 3 (100 MW) and 4 (200 MW) which should be put out of operation in 2018, but will most likely continue to operate until 2020. When unit 7 is completed, it will provide almost a quarter of electricity produced by EPBiH.
