Photo: Alexander Huber from Pixabay
The Government of Serbia adopted the special purpose spatial plan for a system that would consist of planned pumped storage hydropower plant Bistrica and existing hydropower plant Potpeć. It is another step toward the materialization of the currently most important project in Serbia’s energy sector.
The spatial plan provides the basis for the use, arrangement, and protection of the special purpose area of the system composed of pumped storage hydropower plant Bistrica and hydropower plant Potpeć, in the territories of the municipalities of Nova Varoš, Priboj, and Prijepolje, according to the decree.
The 628 MW project Bistrica is important for integrating variable renewable energy sources such as solar power plants and wind farms.
Pumped storage hydropower plants pump water from a lower to an upper reservoir when electricity is cheaper or there is excess electricity in the system. They generate electricity, using the water from the upper reservoir, when electricity is expensive or when there is a deficit in power supply – when production in the electricity system is lower than consumption.
The upper reservoir for the Bistrica facility would be formed by the construction of a dam at the Uvac river while the existing Potpeć reservoir on the Lim river would serve as the lower reservoir.
State-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) has been preparing necessary studies, analyses and plans for the Bistrica project for a few years now. At the same time, the government is also discussing options for financing.
In May, the Government of Japan and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs formalized the participation of state agency JICA in the Bistrica project. EPS general manager Dušan Živković recently said everything was going according to plan to get the power plant online in 2032.
The construction of Bistrica would optimize EPS’s operations, according to the spatial plan. The facility would tackle the lack of stored energy and the capacity to cover the peak part of the load diagram, utilize surpluses from thermal power plants at night, optimize the Drina-Lim hydropower plant system, balance wind farm production and increase system flexibility, the document reads.
A very complex system
The Bistrica system is very complex in terms of engineering and technical and hydraulic elements, the authors pointed out.
The document is a planning basis for ensuring spatial conditions for materializing the Bistrica system. Tunnels and pipelines will enable moving water between the upper reservoir Klak and the Potpeć reservoir, the spatial plan reads.
Tunnels and pipelines would connect the two reservoirs
The Potpeć hydropower plant is part of the Lim hydropower plant system, built from 1960 to 1979. It consists of four reservoirs: Sjeničko (Sjenica) lake, Zlatarsko (Zlatar) lake, and Radoinjsko (Radoinja) lake on the Uvac, and the Potpećko (Potpeć) lake on the Lim. They supply water to four HPPs: Uvac, Kokin Brod, Bistrica, and Potpeć, respectively.
The facilities have 211 MW in combined capacity and an average annual electricity production of 615 GWh.
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