EPBiH seeks renewable energy projects, operational plants to buy

If they want to sell their renewable energy projects or existing power plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina, investors can contact state-owned utility Elektroprivreda BiH by the end of the year.

Public enterprise Elektroprivreda Bosne i Hercegovine renewed a public call for the second time for natural and legal persons and companies that are interested in selling their operational renewable power plants or projects in development.

Call is open until year-end

EPBiH, an energy company owned by the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and based in Sarajevo, said it is interested in existing hydropower plants with a minimum capacity of 1 MW or hydropower projects of at least 10 MW. As for wind and solar power plants, both planned and operational units of 10 MW and 3 MW, respectively, or more are eligible for a takeover, the document says.

Following the example of Croatia’s HEP Group, EPBiH decided already in late 2020 to buy renewable power projects and plants

The call for interested parties is open until the end of the year. Following the example of Croatia’s HEP Group, EPBiH opted for the strategy already in late 2020. The second call expired at the end of last year. In the meantime, Mostar-based Elektroprivreda HZHB, the other government-controlled power utility in the FBiH, also issued such a public call. The Federation of BiH is one of the two entities making up BiH, the other one being the Republic of Srpska.

Company is buying land, developing solar power projects for landfills at its coal plants

In July, EPBiH also expressed interest in leasing and buying land for the construction of its solar power plants. The company intends to build photovoltaic units also on the ash and slag dumps of its coal-fired power plants. Furthermore, it is growing biomass on land belonging to its mines for mixing it with coal for the production of electricity and heat.

At the initiative of the Energy Community Secretariat, the EPBiH said in May it would include carbon dioxide prices in its financial reports from this year even though it has no obligation to pay for greenhouse gas emissions yet. The countries of the Western Balkans have committed to introducing CO2 taxes by 2025, as the European Union said that in 2026 it would start phasing in its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), essentially a cross-border CO2 tax for imports of certain commodities and electricity.