Norway’s Energi Teknikk, Serbia’s D-company team up to make SHPP equipment

Norwegian equipment supplier Energi Teknikk and Serbia’s D-company have signed a strategic partnership agreement which involves joint production of equipment for small and medium-sized hydropower plants (SHPPs) for the Balkan, EU, Russia and US markets, as well as the purchase of 32% of the Norwegian company’s shares by the Serbian company.

Milan Barackov, general manager of Energi Tehnik International, a subsidiary of Energi Teknikk, told Balkan Green Energy News that the strategic partnership is the result of many years of successful cooperation between the two companies in the promotion of export from Serbia. According to Baračkov, the partnership will be based on manufacturing equipment for hydroelectric power plants in Serbia and distributing products around the world.

D-company, based in Babušnica, produces impellers and turbine chambers or complete sets of machine parts for hydroelectric power plants. For two years the Serbian company has operated under license from the Norwegian company, and its annual exports to Norway are worth several million euros, Baračkov said.

In addition, based on its investment in the Norwegian company, D-company has become a co-owner of Energi Teknikk, which has operated in this sector for more than 20 years and has a long list of references, Baračkov said.

The Norwegian equipment supplier will invest knowledge, know-how, design, logistics and sales, and the Serbian partner will be responsible for manufacturing and sale.

Dalibor Stojičić, CTO of Energi Teknikk International and CFO of D-company, told Balkan Green Energy News that D-company has 25-year-long experience in supplying the rubber industry, including French tire manufacturer Michelin.

D-company supplies about 80 Michelin’s factories around the world, he said, adding that the company’s advantage is high-quality products at affordable prices.

We want to use this model in cooperation with the Norwegian company, Stojičić noted.

He says that the company’s management has decided to diversify the business, so it has established cooperation with the Norwegian company.

D-company is ready to make a product for the world market, Stojičić said.

Energi Teknikk to build two SHPPs for EPS

Milan Barackov, general manager of Energi Teknikk International, also announced that Energi Teknikk will build two small hydropower plants, with three units each, for state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) in partnership with Serbia’s Hidro Tan.

In May, EPS invited bids for the construction of two new small hydropower plants (SHPP) – Ćelije HPP, near the City of Kruševac, and Rovni HPP, near the City of Valjevo – on existing dams.

The investment is part of the Programme for Reconstruction of Small Hydropower Plants for which EPS received a EUR 37 million loan in 2012 from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).