The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced on March 28 that it is performing a preliminary consideration of the option to finance the building of the Kolubara B thermal power plant in Lazarevac with a EUR400 million loan.

According to the announcement on the web-site of the EBRD, the loan should be granted to the joint venture of the Serbian Electric Power Company (EPS) and the Italian company Edison, which will carry out the project.

The EBRD also said that the final value of the project has not yet been estimated and that the building of the Kolubara B power plant is the first significant investment of the private sector in electricity production in Serbia.

The new lignite-burning power plant with an output of 750 megawatts will replace a certain number of aging electricity production plants in Serbia and provide better protection of the environment, it was said at the EBRD's web-site.

According to earlier information, the investment in the Kolubara B power plant has been estimated at more than EUR1 billion. The EPS and the Italian company Edison signed a preliminary contract at the end of June last year, on cooperation in building the Kolubara B power plant.