Serbia to put coal plant Kostolac B3 into operation as early as October 2023

The last batch of equipment for the construction of the new unit of the Kostolac B thermal power plant has arrived at the site, by ship. B3 will be connected to the network in June and put into operation as early as October, Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović said.

The construction of the biggest facility for the production of electricity in the Western Balkans in the last four decades is in its final phase. There are currently one thousand workers at the site of the future B3 unit of the Kostolac coal-fired power plant complex in Serbia, and two hundred more will be added to finish the project before the deadline, Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović said. She visited the location with Ambassador of China Chen Bo.

“The new facility will run at all the highest environmental protection standards and it will be the cleanest of all the units that we have,” Đedović claimed and added that the plan is to connect Kostolac B3 to the network on June 28 – St. Vitus Day according to the Julian calendar. The unit will be in operation as early as October, she pointed out.

The minister noted that Serbia needs to covver 10% of its electricity needs from imports in winter time. More than 60 domestic companies are involved in the construction, she asserted.

There are one thousand workers at the site of the future B3 unit of the Kostolac coal-fired power plant complex in Serbia, and two hundred more will be added to finish the project before the deadline

“Special gratitude goes to the miners of the Drmno open pit mine, which will have its capacity grown by 30% with this project. Thank you to all the miners in all our open pit mines that are working hard for us to have sufficient quantities of coal and import the least electricity possible,” she added.

Ambassador Chen Bo pointed out that many more challenges lay ahead in the implementation of the project, but also expressed confidence that the contractor, China Machinery Engineering Corp. (CMEC), would put maximum efforts to finish the thermal power plant in time.