Serbia's EPS completes overhaul of turbine at Djerdap 1 HPP

State-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) has completed the overhaul of turbine No. 5 of Djerdap 1 hydropower plant (HPP), the country's government said.

The rehabilitation of the turbine was worth more than 27 million euro ($30 million) and was carried out by Russian company Silovye Mashiny, the government said in a statement on Wednesday when the turbine resumed operations.

The complete overhaul of the Djerdap 1 plant costs more than 160 million euro, the government said. The revamp of the first four turbines was completed in 2011-2017, while the overhaul of the last remaining sixth one is expected to take place next year.

Following the latest overhaul, the capacity of the plant was raised by 30 MW, while its lifespan was extended by four decades.

The Djerdap 1 plant has been active for more than 40 years now, having produced electricity worth some 14 billion euro, energy minister Aleksandar Antic said in the statement.

He added that EPS will continue its cooperation with Silovye Mashiny on the planned overhaul of the Djerdap 2 plant, which will begin once all six Djerdap 1 turbines are revamped.

Djerdap 2, located some 10 kilometres away from Djerdap 1, has 10 turbines of a different type with a combined installed capacity of 270 MW. The plan is to raise its capacity by 50 MW by the overhaul, which is valued at some 200 million euro, the acting head of EPS, Milorad Grcic, said in the same statement.

The Djerdap hydropower complex, located in the Iron Gate gorge on the Danube river, was built jointly by Serbia and Romania and commissioned in the 1970s. The Serbian part of the complex comprises Djerdap 1 and Djerdap 2 HPPs with installed capacity of 1,058 MW and 270 MW, respectively.

Serbia is considering building a third power plant, Djerdap 3, which would have a capacity of 2,400 MW and would cost approximately 6 billion euro.

($ = 0.902890 euro)

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