Bosnian state-controlled electricity producer Elektroprivreda BiH has connected the newly-built 110/30kV substation for the future 48 MW Podvelezje wind farm to the grid. The 9.5 million marka ($5.7 million/4.9 million euro) project for building the substation also included the installation of 40 kilometers of underground cables to connect it to the planned 15 turbines of the wind farm, Elektroprivreda BiH (EPBiH).
The wind farm is being built near the southern town of Mostar by a consortium comprising Croatia’s Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Denmark’s Siemens Wind Power A/S, both units of Spanish engineering company Siemens Gamesa. The Podvelezje wind farm is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2021, with an estimated annual electricity production of some 130 GWh.
EPBiH has signed a 30-year concession contract for the project with the government of Bosnia’s Herzegovina-Neretva Canton. The project will be financed by a loan from German development bank KfW and EPBiH’s own funding. EPBiH said earlier that the KfW loan will be in the amount of 65 million euro ($77 million), whereas EPBiH will invest 3 million euro.