Renewable

SOFIA (Bulgaria), February 1 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian state-owned National Electricity Company, NEK, has launched works on the rehabilitation of Sestrimo hydro power plant (HPP), the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) said on Friday.

The works will leave the 240 MW plant with only half of its capacity available, IBEX said in a notice.

Works are expected to be completed on July 22, according to the notice.

Last year, NEK signed a 19.9 million euro ($22.8 million) contract with a consortium comprising Czech company CKD Blansko, Croatia's Koncar-KET and Slovenia's Rudis, envisaging rehabilitation of the Momina Klisura and Sestrimo HPPs and Belmeken pumped storage HPP. 

The contract is part of a project for the rehabilitation of Belmeken – Sestrimo – Chaira hydro power complex, Vacha-1 HPP 110 kV switchyard and other HPP systems of integrated control. The overall budget of the project is 37 million euro, with 70% to be financed by KIDSF and 30% by NEK, the EBRD, which administers the KIDSF, said in January. 

($ = 0.8716 euro)