Macedonia, Austria’s Energie Zotter Bau Sign 15 Mln Euro Concession Deal for 16 Hydro Power Plants

SKOPJE (Macedonia), July 16 (SeeNews) – Macedonia's Economy Ministry said on Thursday it awarded Austria’s Energie Zotter Bau a design-build-operate-transfer (DBOT) concession for 16 small hydro power plants worth a combined 15 million euro ($21.1 million).

The plants' total installed capacity will be 6.62 megawatts (MW), and annual average production will total 26.48 GWh, the Economy Ministry said in a statement posted on its website. The plants should be built by June 2012.

Energie Zotter Bau was one of the companies selected as best bidders in the first two separate tenders for DBOT concession that were called between 2006 and 2008. Concession agreements with the eight other best bidders are to be signed soon, the ministry said without elaborating. Currently, the tender commission is evaluating the offers filed in the third DBOT tender for the construction of 20 small hydro-power plants, in which ten foreign and domestic candidates placed bids.

The Economy Ministry plans to call a fourth tender for construction of small hydro-power plants in Macedonia, it said but did not provide any details.

Macedonia plans to build a total of 400 small hydro power plants, an investment worth an estimated 300 million euro, the ministry said earlier. The country faces serious challenges in its power infrastructure, including insufficient electricity links with its neighbours.

($=0.7086 euro)

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