September 9 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a mandate letter to provide a 50 million euro ($50.3 million) loan to Bosnian power utility Elektroprivreda BiH [SAJ:JPESR] for a planned coal-to-biomass conversion project involving the third block of the Tuzla thermal power plant, the power utility said.
Under the mandate letter, the planned loan will be used to convert the power plant's third block to burning wood biomass instead of coal in the energy production process, Elektroprivreda BiH said in a statement on Thursday.
The 100 MWe block is expected to stop the production of energy from coal by the end of 2023. The block is the main source of heating energy for the cities of Tuzla and Lukavac.
The Tuzla plant has an installed capacity of 732 MW. It produces some 3,600 GWh of electricity per year on average, consuming 3.3 million tonnes of coal.
Elektroprivreda BiH, Bosnia's largest power utility, is based in the Federation entity. Elektroprivreda RS is the power utility of the Serb Republic.
The Federation and the Serb Republic are two autonomous entities that form Bosnia and Herzegovina.
($ = 0.9934 euro)