The Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) has selected the 8.221.950 euro bid from Vigoris Ecotech as the most favorable bid in the tender for the construction of the small hydroelectric power plant (sHPP) “Otilovići” in Pljevlja. The remaining two bidders were rejected because they did not meet the technical requirements, so this long-awaited project could find a contractor after a year and a half and three tenders.
EPCG announced the decision on December 17th and has a ten-day appeal period. The estimated value of the deal was 8,22 million euros, and the tender ran from September 17th to November 5th.
The Otilovići SHPP would be built next to the existing dam on the Ćehotina River, which was built to supply water to the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant back in 1982. Its capacity would be around three megawatts, and it is expected to produce around 11 million kilowatt-hours per year, enough to supply around 1.200 households.
The selected Podgorica-based “Vigoris Ecotech” would carry out the work with subcontractors “Telemont” from the same city and “Nikos Cop” from Berane. According to the tender, the selected contractor will have six months from the conclusion of the contract to complete the main project, the same amount of time to prepare an environmental impact assessment for this project, a maximum of one year and eight months to carry out the works, while they will have to guarantee the project for at least two, i.e. a maximum of seven years.
The joint bid of the Podgorica-based company “Decom Group” and Cetinje-based “SBCC”, with the subcontractor “Fero Invest” from Skopje, was rejected because they did not meet the requirements of the technical specifications for the excitation and control system. Their bid was worth 7.717.110 euros.
The Podgorica company "Elnos" and the Danilovgrad subcontractors "Ing Invest" and "Eurozox" offered 8.226.545 euros, but they were rejected because they did not meet the requirements of the technical specifications regarding the generator.
Both bids were rejected pursuant to Article 133, paragraph 1, item 2 of the Public Procurement Law.
"An incorrect bid is a bid if it is not submitted in accordance with the technical specification or the requirements for the subject of the procurement are unclear, and these deficiencies cannot be eliminated by clarifying the bid referred to in Article 134, paragraph 3," this article of the Law states.
This small hydropower plant is important because it will provide new energy sources after the planned shutdown of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant by 2041, making it a key part of the energy transition and development of the municipality of Pljevlja and the entire north of the country.
The first procedure for selecting a contractor for the "Otilovići" project was announced in May last year, but was canceled at the end of 2024 after EPCG continued the tender, even though one of the bidders filed an appeal. The second tender was announced at the end of last year and was canceled in April this year, because EPCG determined that the bidders did not meet the technical requirements of the tender.
In September 2021, the government gave the green light for a concession to use water for the construction of hydroelectric power plants in Montenegro, namely for the valorization of water potential from the "Otilovići" reservoir next to the existing dam, which would use the excess water flowing from that location.
The then director of EPCG Nikola Rovčanin said that he expects the tender to be announced by the end of the year, so that work could begin in the spring of 2022, which has not yet happened. He said at the time that the construction of the Otilovići small hydropower plant had been analyzed since the beginning of the dam's construction in 1981 and that the project documentation had been revised in 2001 and 2011, but that the project had not come to fruition.
The government issued the urban planning and technical conditions for "Otilovići" in July 2023.
Bonus video:
