Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is interested in financing Serbia’s project for the construction of the Bistrica reversible hydro power plant (RHPP), Serbian energy minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said.

According to the project’s recently finished feasibility study, the construction of the facility will cost over 1 billion euros, Djedovic Handanovic said after a meeting with Japan’s ambassador to Belgrade, Akira Imamura.

Imamura pointed to Japan’s interest in cooperating with Serbia on other energy projects as well, emphasising the Asian nation’s advanced energy storage technologies, according to the statement.

In May 2022, state-owned power utility EPS, which is running the Bistrica RHPP project, said that the plant will comprise four units of 628 MW in total installed capacity, with planned annual generation of around 1,100 GWh. The multipurpose facility will benefit from the operations of a pump-turbine unit.

EPS has noted that the flexibility and storage capacity of the future plant will significantly contribute to the security of electricity supply and decarbonisation of Serbia, and the region.