ERS power utility to issue bonds on Vienna Stock Exchange

The state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske (ERS) will issue bonds on the Vienna Stock Exchange, Minister of Finance Zora Vidović said.

Zora Vidović, the Minister of Finance, has underlined that the plan to issue ERS bonds was backed by the Government of the Republic of Srpska.

ERS will issue bonds worth EUR 140 million, and the funds will be used to build the Dabar and Bistrica hydropower plants. According to local media, ERS signed construction contracts with two Chinese companies.

Minister Vidović pointed out that ERS doesn’t need to ask for guarantees from the Government of the Republic of Srpska to issue debt securities.

“I think that it is very good and that our electric power industry should establish its creditworthiness and appear on the international market because it exports a lot of electricity,” Vidović points out, TV RTRS reported.

Luka Petrović: We are building 1 GW in green power plants

Luka Petrović, General Manager of ERS, stated the company is in its most extensive investment cycle in production facilities so far and that it plans to build power plants with an installed capacity of 1,000 MW.

“The priority in the first three-year phase is the construction of HPP Dabar, with a capacity of 160 MW, three hydropower plants under the Gornja Drina project, with a total capacity of 190 MW, and three hydropower plants on the Bistrica river, with a total capacity of 34.5 MW,” Petrović said.

He added the utility is planning to install wind farm Hrgud, with a capacity of 50 MW, and solar power plant Trebinje 1 of 73 MW.

We want to introduce CO2 taxes, but we need help

Petrović said HPP Bileća and HPP Nevesinje are also in the pipeline within the Gornji horizonti (Upper Horizons) project, together with the construction of HPP Fatnica.

As part of its ten-year plan, ERS intends to build hydropower plants on the middle and lower parts of the Drina river, HPP Cijevna in Bosnia, wind farms in Herzegovina, solar power plants Trebinje 3 and Ljubinje 3, and HPP Sutorina, which is planned in Montenegro, he pointed out.

Petrović noted that the Energy Community expects power utilities in the Balkans to include a CO2 tax.

“We want to introduce the tax, but at the same time, we want concrete help in the realization of projects from renewable energy sources because we do not have any grants, funds, or loans,” Petrović said.

He said the company is not ready, financially or technically, to introduce such a tax without help in building renewable facilities.