Alcazar signs grid connection agreement for Bijela wind farm

Montenegro’s transmission system operator CGES has signed a contract with Alcazar Energy for the grid connection of a 118.8 MW solar power project.

The agreement on grid connection was signed by Ivan Asanović, CEO of TSO CGES, and Enrico Casari, representative of Alcazar Energy, Montenegro state-owned company said.

The contract with Alcazar on the Bijela facility is the fifth one that CGES signed with investors in renewables. The total envisaged capacity of all the solar parks and wind farms is now 1,327 MW. The other projects are developed by MEnergy, Sun Horizon, Obnovljivi Izvori Energije and Agenos Energy.

CGES will finance the substation upgrade from a loan that it obtained from the EBRD

Alcazar’s wind power plant would be connected to the Brezna substation, located in the northwest of Montenegro. The facility is expected to be online in 2027. The substation must be upgraded for connecting Bijela to the grid. CGES said it would finance the project from a loan that it obtained from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Alcazar Energy acquired the Bijela project in September 2023. The original developers – Simes inženjering and Sistem MNE – have stayed on as support in the endeavor.

The project is estimated at USD 200 million

At the time, the project was estimated at USD 200 million. Alcazar announced in May its plans to complete two or three acquisitions of renewable energy projects over the next couple of quarters to reach 1 GW in capacity in the Western Balkans.

Only a month later, the company kickstarted a 400 MW wind power investment in North Macedonia. Alcazar said it was a key step on its path to developing the largest renewable energy platform in the Western Balkans.

According to CGES, the Bijela wind farm will create more than 800 construction jobs and produce enough electricity to supply more than 20,700 households annually.

The signing of the contract was also attended by Dragan Perunović, CGES’s director of development and investment, and representatives of Alcazar Energy Marko Radulović and Dejan Milić.