Tuzla 7 coal plant project in BiH is dead, entity prime minister says

It is completely clear that the Tuzla 7 coal power plant project won’t proceed, said Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Nermin Nikšić.

Tuzla 7 is the planned new unit in the Tuzla thermal power plant. Over the years, the project ran into many obstacles. Long after it reached a dead end, officials from the Federation of BiH mostly refrained from commenting.

Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić broke the silence in his speech marking Miners Day at the Mramor mine near Tuzla, in the country’s north. Of note, the decision to build unit 7 was made in 2014 during his first term as prime minister. FBiH is one of the two entities making up Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Republic of Srpska.

Nikšić pointed out that during his previous term, records in coal production were set every month. In the meantime, the number of workers has decreased and coal production has halved, he added.

EPBiH is in big trouble

It all led to the purchase of coal from third parties to maintain the stability of the energy system, Nikšić was quoted as saying by Faktor.ba.

The coal mines are part of state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda BiH (EPBiH) which has major financial issues, partly due to the low coal output.

Nikšić suggested that the Government of FBiH agreed to a compromise with the recent collective agreement on the rights and obligations of employers and workers in the mining sector in the entity.

The deal includes additional obligations, he stressed and expressed hope that the company soon won’t need to buy coal from anywhere else than the mines run by its subsidiaries.

Nikšić: The EU is also restarting coal units

Coal power plants are being reactivated in the European union, but it is completely clear that the Tuzla 7 unit project won’t proceed, Nikšić stressed.

However, he vowed FBiH would do its best to make other coal plant units ready for 2030 and 2050.

The consortium of Chinese companies Gezhouba Group and Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute (GGGC-GEDI) was selected in 2014 as the contractor for unit 7.