Ugljevik power plant, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Commissioned in 1985, the 300 MW coal power plant in Ugljevik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has become famous for emitting more sulphur dioxide than all of Germany’s coal power plants in 2019.
![](https://bankwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2021_12_Ugljevik-Bosnia-and-Herzegovina-October-2021.jpg)
Stay informed
We closely follow international public finance and bring critical updates from the ground.
Background
To put things in perspective, for every GWh of electricity generated in 2019, Ugljevik emitted 50 tonnes of sulphur dioxide, that is 50 times more than EU’s worst polluter, Bełchatów in Poland, which emitted 1.1 tonnes of SO2/GWh.
The problem is not new, but the paradox is that a financing contract for installing desulphurisation (de-SOx) equipment at Ugljevik was signed more than 14 years ago, and the installation is still not functioning.
Financed by a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed back in 2009, works on the de-SOx equipment started only in 2017 and test operations began in December 2019. It seemed likely that in 2020, SO2 emissions would be significantly lower, finally justifying the EUR 85 million investment.
However, in February 2020 technical problems were reported. The plant’s dust filters, overhauled more than three years ago by the Czech company Termochem at a cost of around EUR 10 million, were faulty, and their proper functioning is reported to be a precondition for desulphurisation. The plant operator spent an additional EUR 100,000 on a study that would show how to address the problem.
In 2021, RiTE Ugljevik, the power plant operator, sought ‘technical assistance’ to obtain the operating permit, adding an extra EUR 100,000 to the costs of this project. The contract was awarded to a company owned by the mayor of Zvornik, raising a host of questions on why the publicly-owned utility RiTE Ugljevik is not capable of obtaining an operating permit itself.
The plant finally obtained an operating permit for the desulphurisation equipment in November 2021. However, its 2022 sulphur dioxide emissions of 85,526 tonnes were barely any lower than those in 2021 (86,774 tonnes). Since 2018, when the Large Combustion Plants Directive entered force under the Energy Community Treaty, there has been no significant decrease in the plant’s emissions.
Out of all Bosnia and Herzegovina’s coal power plants, Ugljevik’s emissions caused the most days of asthmatic symptoms in children, with over 12,000 days in 2020. This is equal to 48 per cent of all such impacts from the country’s coal power plants which are included in the National Emissions Reduction Plan. Ugljevik is also responsible for the highest number of cases of bronchitis in children due to dust emissions, and of hospital admissions because of cardiovascular and respiratory symptoms, with 1,142 cases of the former and 469 of the latter in 2020.
Latest news
Western Balkans decarbonisation is urgent: but the EU enlargement package is still sending mixed signals
Blog entry | 10 November, 2023The European Commission’s annual reports on the Western Balkan countries’ EU accession progress vary considerably on decarbonisation, sending mixed messages on coal and especially gas. The EU needs to take a more consistent approach if the region is to achieve decarbonisation by 2050 at the latest.
Read moreBosnia and Herzegovina’s draft NECP: The good, the bad and the ugly
Blog entry | 20 July, 2023Bosnia and Herzegovina’s draft NECP finally looks to the future, plans no new fossil fuel power plants and significantly scales back unrealistic hydropower plans. But existing coal plants are to keep operating illegally and the draft is furtive about coal-to-biomass plans.
Read moreNew report – deadly legal breaches by Western Balkan coal plants increased in 2022
Press release | 28 June, 2023In 2022, deadly air pollution from the Western Balkans’ coal power plants increased compared to 2021, according to the fifth edition of Bankwatch’s Comply or Close report, published today (1). Emissions of all three regulated pollutants – sulphur dioxide (SO2), dust and nitrogen oxides (NOx) grew, and for the first time, the region’s overall limit for NOx was breached.
Read moreRelated publications
Kolubara mine “mired in crime and corruption”
Bankwatch Mail | 7 March, 2013 |At a press conference in January, Serbia’s energy minister Zorana Mihajlović spoke out strongly against the Kolubara mining complex, describing it as being “mired in crime and corruption” while also announcing that a thorough investigation is ongoing into corrupt practices by the Kolubara management. Bankwatch believes that this latest confirmed scandal at Kolubara should be giving the EBRD serious pause for reflection as it considers yet another loan to the Serbian electricity company EPS, heavily implicated in these latest revelations.
EBRD enters Kosovo: Past IFI failures must be heeded
Bankwatch Mail | 7 March, 2013 |Kosovo has just celebrated the fifth anniversary of independence. In these five years, Kosovo has achieved membership of certain international financial institutions (IFIs): having already joined the IMF and the World Bank, on December 17 last year Kosovo became the 66th member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Yet what can Kosovo’s citizens expect from EBRD membership?
MEPs call on EIB not to disburse funds to Sostanj lignite power plant
Advocacy letter | 30 January, 2013 | Download PDFThis letter from Claude Turmes (Greens), Alojz Peterle (EPP) and Kathleen van Brempt (S&D) calls upon the European Investment Bank’s President Werner Hoyer to withhold the disbursement of EIB funds for the Šoštanj lignite power plant project in Slovenia due to ongoing corruption investigations and the project’s questionable economic viability.