Three Chinese companies have bid to finance and build a 350 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in central Bosnia, Munever Cergic, the general manager of Banovici coal mine, the future plant operator, said on Friday.
The companies are Shanghai Electric Group Company Ltd, China Gezhouba Group Company Ltd and Dongfang Electric Corporation Ltd, Cergic told Reuters, adding that Shanghai Electric Group submitted the most favorable bid.
The government and the parliament of Bosnia’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation will have to approve the list of bidders after which the Banovici mine assembly will evaluate the bids and pick the best bidder by the end of 2015, Cergic said.
The plant, which will burn coal from the adjacent Banovici mines, is planned to be connected to the grid by 2018. It will produce 2,047 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity a year.
The Banovici coal mines are among the largest in Bosnia with reserves estimated at 147 million tonnes and average annual output of 1.5 million tonnes.
Bosnia obtains 40 percent of its electricity from hydro power and the rest from coal-fired plants, making the Balkan country one of the few in the region capable of exporting power.
