After concluding the tendering procedure, the Municipality of Priboj signed a RSD 89.9 million contract on the design, procurement and installation of a biomass boiler with a consortium led by MPP Jedinstvo Sevojno with contractors Viessmann Belgrade and Čip from Prokuplje and Axis Construction Bureau from Novi Sad as a subcontractor.

The investment is funded by the Public Investment Management Office through the government’s program for the reconstruction and improvement of public buildings in the sector of education, health care, and social protection.

This will be the second biomass boiler in the Priboj municipality, with an installed capacity of 1,800 kW, after the first was installed in November 2016. The second biomass boiler will supply heat to the elementary schools of Vuk Karadžić and Desanka Maksimović, the Mechanical Vocational School, the High School, and a walk-in children’s clinic.

The boiler will use a wood chips as fuel, mainly from fir and spruce, resulting in energy savings as chips are more cost-effective than both pellets and heating oil, the Municipality of Priboj said in a press release.

Deputy Major Saša Vasilić told Balkan Green Energy News that the installation of the second biomass boiler represents the second phase of converting the local district heating system from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

Tender for a city heating plant

The first phase was to switch to pellets as fuel for the boiler supplying four public buildings in 2016 and the third will be the transition of the district heating plant to wood chips.

The negotiations with consultants from German development bank KfW are underway and the Municipality of Priboj anticipates the announcement of the tendering procedure for the district heating plant at the beginning of autumn, Vasilić said, adding that the municipality will probably be among the first, or maybe the first to switch the entire local district heating system from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, i.e. wood chips.

The transition will be delivered in cooperation with the Ministry of Mining and Energy, as well as foreign partners –KfW and the German development organization GIZ, he said.

In mid-2017, the ministry and representatives of KfW and the Government of Switzerland signed agreements on the converting of ten district heating plants from fossil fuels to biomass, including in Priboj.