Italy to buy electricity from Serbia

Italy will buy electricity produced by Serbian hydropower plants at a price of EUR 0.155 per kWh, Blic daily reported citing Petar Skundric, the prime minister’s advisor for energy. The electricity will be produced at the hydropower plants that local utility EPS is building jointly with Italy’s SECI Energia. According to Skundric, the deal will help EPS boost its earnings, as the price at which Italy will buy power are seven times higher than EPS’s production prices. EPS and SECI Energia signed an agreement on the construction of an EUR 800mn hydro power complex on the Drina river in February 2011. The project envisages building power plants with a combined capacity of over 300MW. EPS and SECI Energia have another joint venture for the construction of 10 hydropower plants on the river Ibar in southern Serbia.