The reservoir impounded by the Potpeć hydropower dam will be used as the lower basin with the upper reservoir to be formed by the construction of a new dam on the Uvac river, allowing the open-loop project to harness a gross head of around 370 m. The Klak dam, which would be the last to be built on the river Uvac, around 7 km downstream from the Radoinja dam, will impound a reservoir with a total storage volume of 108 x 106 m3, and an active or usable volume of 70 x 106 m3.
Dragan Stankovic, the head of maintenance and investment in hydropower and renewable energy at Serbian state-owned energy producer Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), said last week the utility plans to start developing the Bistrica pumped-storage station in 2026, adding that negotiations are ongoing with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on financing of the project. In May, the Government of Japan and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs formalized the participation of JICA in the Bistrica project. A final decision by JICA on the financing of the project is expected in the second half of next year.
Serbian energy minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic stated this summer that Serbia aims to build the project, valued at some €1 billion (US$ 1.08 billion), by 2031. EPS has said that Bistrica, which will be located on the Uvac and Lim river basins, will comprise four units, with planned annual generation of some 1100 GWh. The construction of Bistrica would optimize EPS’s operations, notably the Drina-Lim hydropower plant system, according to the spatial plan. The facility would address the lack of energy storage capacity to cover peak demand, utilize surplus production from thermal power plants at night, balance wind farm production and increase system flexibility, the document reads.
Potpeć is part of the Lim hydropower plant system, built from 1960 to 1979, comprising four reservoirs and four hydropower plants totalling 211 MW with a combined average annual production of 615 GWh. The Sjeničko (Sjenica), Zlatarsko (Zlatar) and Radoinjsko (Radoinja) lakes on the Uvac, and the Potpećko (Potpeć) lake on the Lim supply water to the Uvac, Kokin Brod, Bistrica, and Potpeć plants, respectively.
