Montenegro Seeks Investors For Four Hydro Plants
Date: 28-Oct-08
Country: MONTENEGRO
The government gave prospective bidders a Dec. 1 deadline to submit offers for four new plants on the Moraca river with a combined annual capacity of 6.93 million kilowatt hours (kWh), according to the tender details, published in the Pobjeda daily.
The construction of the four plants, estimated to cost around 500 million euros (US$622 million), will be the first major investment in 25 years in the nation's energy sector.
The Balkan state currently imports 35 percent of its annual electricity needs of 4.8 billion kWh. Experts believe that Montenegro is using only 25 percent of its river potential for electricity production.
Norwegian power company Statkraft has expressed interest in the project, local media said.
Montenegro's infrastructure, including power production facilities, fell into disrepair during a decade of international sanctions and isolation, when the Adriatic state was Serbia's junior partner in rump Yugoslavia.
(Reporting by Dusko Mihajlovic; writing by Ivana Sekularac; editing by Gordana Filipovic)