The energy sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Current energy production

Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently a net exporter of electricity. More than half of its electricity generation capacity is made up of hydropower, while the remainder is made up of four lignite power plants.

There is around 2140 MW of installed hydropower capacity (2034 MW capacity for transmission) and 1781 MW of lignite (1590 MW capacity for transmission). However in recent years this ratio has not usually been reflected in the actual production levels as 2011-2013 were poor years for hydropower.

Planned capacities

Coal / lignite

The coal power plants are situated in Tuzla (715 MW installed capacity), Kakanj (466 MW) Gacko (300 MW) and Ugljevik (300 MW), all with their own mines nearby.

New lignite-fired units are planned as follows:

Tuzla unit 7 (450 MW)
Banovici, near Tuzla - new plant (300 MW)
Stanari, near Doboj - new plant (300 MW)
Ugljevik III (600 MW)
Kakanj 8 (300 MW)

Other lignite plants are also proposed, however they do not seem to be moving forward at the moment.

A second unit at Gacko was also planned but led to a lengthy dispute between Czech company CEZ and the Republika Srpska electricity company Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske which was finally resolved in September 2014. A second unit at Ugljevik was started in co-operation with Slovenia before the 1990s wars but left half-built.

Hydropower and renewables

As well as new coal capacity, Bosnia and Herzegovina plans a large amount of new hydropower capacity, which is proving equally or more controversial than the coal plants.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has a renewable energy target of 40 percent by 2020 compared to 34 percent of energy in 2009. The country’s renewable energy potential is estimated at

6.8 GW in small and large hydropower plants,
2 GW wind,
33 MW solar and
18 TWh/y from biomass.

The country’s geothermal potential is estimated to be the second largest in the Energy Community at about 40GWh/y. However the hydropower potential should be treated with caution as the figure relates to overall potential, not environmentally sustainable potential.

A 2012 ISO study estimated that up to 350 MW of installed wind capacity can be approved for connection to the transmission network by 2019, and various projects are planned, but none of them are yet under construction at the time of writing.

Around 2 MW of solar photovoltaic systems have been installed in the last 2-3 years. Traditional wood biomass is used extensively in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 82 percent of households reporting that they use some type of biomass for space heating, cooking or water heating. The share reaches 92 percent in rural areas and up to 72 percent in urban areas.

Other fossil fuels

Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have its own natural gas extraction so it is dependent on the Beregovo - Horgos - Zvornik import route from Russia via Ukraine, Hungary and Serbia.

Gas use in the country is limited by the distribution network which is only present in Sarajevo, Zenica, Zvornik and Visoko.

As for oil, the Brod refinery on the Croatian border imports crude oil via the Adriatic oil pipeline JANAF. The refinery has caused anger among local people, including those in Slavonski Brod on the Croatian side of the border, with its high levels of air pollution.

Other energy potentials

Like other countries in the region, Bosnia and Herzegovina could do a lot more to use energy efficiently. There has been a decrease in energy intensity of around 20 percent since the 1990s, but the country is still almost 40 percent more energy intensive than the average in the Western Balkan countries, and more than twice the average in EU countries.

The main problems are losses in energy transformation, dated infrastructure and technologies, poorly insulated buildings and the use of inefficient equipment, and according to a 2010 World Bank study (pdf), the highest potential for improvement is in the buildings sector, followed by industry and then transport.

Under the Energy Community Treaty Bosnia and Herzegovina has a 9 percent target to increase efficiency by 2018, but it has no state-level Energy Efficiency Action Plan yet.