EPS’s Kostolac B3 coal plant in Serbia completed

Minister of Mining and Energy of Serbia Dubravka Đedović Handanović said the commissioning documentation for the Kostolac B3 thermal power plant is almost finished. China Machinery Engineering Corp. (CMEC), the contractor, started the construction seven years ago.

During her visit to the despatch and trading center of state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović announced that the company’s first production facility after more than 30 years is complete. Testing is finished at the Kostolac B3 thermal power plant east of Belgrade, she added.

The Serbian minister explained that the commissioning documentation is nearly done as well.

Kostolac B3 has 350 MW in capacity

Kostolac B3 might be Europe’s last coal-fired power plant. Numerous facilities are being closed throughout the continent. However, for instance, there are occasional attempts in Bosnia and Herzegovina to build more units. Turkey has some projects left after several cancellations.

The framework agreement for Kostolac B3 with the contractor, China Machinery Engineering Corp. (CMEC), was signed in 2010. Construction started in 2017.

EPS is preparing to mothball two old coal power plants

The unit, located in one of Serbia’s two coal hubs, has 350 MW in capacity, with a net efficiency level of 37.3%. EPS is building its first wind power plant and mid-sized photovoltaic facility in the same complex. The company has also recently launched a project for six solar power plants of 1.2 GW in peak capacity in Serbia, including batteries.

Kostolac B2, built in 1991, was the newest coal unit in Serbia before B3. With the European Union’s upcoming tax on imported CO2 under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the competitiveness of EPS’s coal power plants will gradually drop.

The company is preparing to mothball two old coal plants.

EPS earned almost EUR 256 million in first three quarters of 2024

Serbia has overcome the issues that forced it in the summer to cover part of the electricity demand from imports, Đedović Handanović said. She recalled the drought, record consumption, long-delayed capital overhauls in Kostolac and the Obrenovac coal power complex, as well as the reconstruction of a generator in Bajina Bašta, the country’s only pumped storage hydropower plant.

In the first nine months of the year, EPS’s profit came in 30% higher than planned, at almost EUR 256 million, the minister revealed. In October alone, the utility earned EUR 7.5 million from electricity trading, she added.

Đedović Handanović stressed that EPS is strengthening its portfolio by purchasing electricity under favorable conditions from producers that participated in the country’s first renewable energy auctions.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer Dušan Živković said it is ready for the winter. More than 2.4 million tons of coal is stockpiled and hydropower reservoirs are 95% full, he pointed out.