State Secretary at Montenegrin Ministry for Spatial Planning, Ecology and Urbanism Danilo Mrdak said that any technical and engineering solution that guarantees that the future reservoir will not have negative impacts on the Tara river and that no part of the Tara River will be submerged is completely acceptable to Montenegrin side.
An expert team of seven members whose task will be to review the project documentation, structure and planned operation of hydropower plant Buk Bijela, as well as to determine the altitude of the overflow point, i.e. the maximum elevation to which the future reservoir can grow, will be established between Montenegro and the Republic of Srpska (RS) in the next month.
State-owned power utility ERS provided the technical documentation to the Montenegrin side and expressed satisfaction that cooperation has been established to resolve the issues regarding the HPP Buk Bijela project.
In March 2019, RS and Serbia decided to cooperate on the project for the construction of HPP Buk Bijela, besides already agreed joint development of the projects for the construction of hydropower plants Foca and Paunci on the Drina river. At the meeting of the Energy Committee of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, it was concluded that the construction of these facilities, whose combined installed capacity exceeds 180 MW, would equally contribute to the stability of energy systems of both countries. In June 2016, the contract on the concession grant for the construction and operation of 93.52 MW HPP Buk Bijela between the RS Government and the consortium which consists of power utility ERS and its subsidiary “Hidroelekrane na Drini” has been signed. The concession is granted for a period of 50 years and the estimated value of the investment is around 195 million euros. The foundation stone for the project was laid in May this year.
