On the Hydroelectric Power Plant (HE) “Dabar” system, the largest project of its kind in the Balkans in the last 30 years, the main works have begun in the area of the municipality of Bileća. It is a hydroelectric power plant with an installed capacity of 160 megawatts, within the “Upper Horizons” subsystem, and the continuation of the construction of the project will cost 222 million euros.
The deadline for construction, which has been entrusted to the Chinese company “Gezuba Group”, is 46 months, and the power system of Republika Srpska should provide a new 500 gigawatt hours of electricity.
The 12.4-kilometer supply tunnel will be completed this year, and the Chinese should complete the barrier dam of the Nevesinje Reservoir, the pipeline to the power plant and the hydropower plant itself, the transmission line and the channel through the Dabarsko polje, 6.4 kilometers long.
The “Dabar” HPP system belongs to the HET hydropower system and is the most important hydroelectric power plant in the “Gornji Horizonti” system. This system, in addition to HPP “Dabar”, also foresees the construction of HPP “Bileća” and HPP “Nevesinje”.
HPP “Dabar” is a complex project that lowers water from the Nevesin plateau to the Dabar plateau with a net drop of 365 meters.
The contract for that project was signed in May 2020, and the Government of Republika Srpska gave a guarantee for 85 percent of the value of the contract, while ERS paid 15 percent, as well as other fees.
It is planned that the hydropower plant will have a power of 160 megawatts, and within that system, the construction of a 12.5-kilometer long tunnel is in the final phase, which is being done by “Integral inženjering”.
HET said that HPP “Dabar” is the largest hydropower facility being built in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and that it represents a historic project for Herzegovina and future generations.
“HE ‘Dabar’ belongs to the projected hydropower system of HET and is the most important hydroelectric power plant in the ‘Gornji Horizonti’ system. With the completion of HE ‘Dabar’ and HE ‘Bileća’ from the ‘Gornji Horizonti’ system, it is planned to double the existing balance of HET “, they stated from that company.
The “Dabar” HPP system consists of the Nevesinja reservoir with a volume of 61.80 million cubic meters of water, then the Pošćenje dam, the derivation tunnel 12,140 meters long with the entrance building, then the water level, pipelines under pressure, machine building, the channel through Dabarsko polje 6,360 meters long, embankments Grebak and Vranjača, which have the function of water retention of the reservoir.
Photo: illustration