Hydro Power Plants on Moraca River
Montenegro has an annual average water flow 27.8 thousands m³ per capita. This fact classifies it among the richest countries in water resources. Out of a total hydropower generation potential of 9,846 GW/h, Montenegro uses less than 1,800 GW/h, or just over 17%. The hydropower potential has been recognized as an important resource of Montenegro: with adequate valorisation, it can become one of the key drivers of the future economic development.
The Government of Montenegro, with adoption of the Energy Development Strategy until 2025, opted to exploit the untapped hydropower potential of river Morača through a public-private partnership. For this purpose, the Government has engaged the International Financial Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, as the leading advisor in order to prepare and implement an international tender for the selection of highly qualified strategic investors for the realization of this project.
Description of the project
The possibility of exploiting the hydropower potential of the River Morača through a cascade of hydropower plants upstream of Podgorica has been investigated since the 1950s. Over the years, detailed plans and preparations have been made, which resulted in the development of a basic technical solution which foresees four dams. Comprehensive updates to the project feasibility studies were made in 1998.
The Existing basic technical solution that motivated the Montenegrin Government to announce an international tender, consists in a cascade of four hydropower plants: Andrijevo, Raslovići, Milunović and Zlatica, for total installed capacity 238 MW and an estimated average annual generation of 721 GW/h. All four dams are of the arche type, with Andrijevo (the most upstream and highest) being a concrete arch dam and the other concrete being gravity dams.
he Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) during the past twenty years has performed extensive geotechnical and hydrological studies. Previous studies and research were carried out during the 1980s, which resulted in a detailed project documents for the cascade hydropower plants.
The predicted time required the construction of the four HPP is six years, with total estimated costs of 540 million EUR. Estimated costs include the cost of construction of hydropower facilities themselves (civil works with all necessary equipment), the cost of construction of connection lines, the cost of additional works (expropriation, replacing of the roads and the protection of the monastery Morača), the cost of the Plan for managing impacts on the environment and society, as well as project development costs (legal, engineering, etc.).