Bosnia and Herzegovina: Compliance or Closure – How Western Balkan Countries Violate Air Pollution Regulations

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Bosnia and Herzegovina is the first country to publish its draft National Emissions Reduction Plan (NERP). B&H did not carry out a strategic environmental assessment but held an informal public hearing on the document. The plan was approved by the Council of Ministers on 30 December 2015 and approved by the Energy Community Secretariat in October 2016.

B&H has appointed three units – Tuzla 3, Tuzla 4 and Kakanj 5 – for limiting their operating life (the so-called opt-out mechanism), which allows them to operate a total of 20,000 hours between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2023, when they should be shut down or comply with the emission limit values for new installations in accordance with the Industrial Emissions Directive.

Bosnia and Herzegovina also has one new power plant that does not qualify for inclusion in NERP – TPP Stanari, which officially began operation in September 2016.

Continuous emission monitoring

 

The facilities in Tuzla and Kakanj, owned by Elektroprivreda B&H, have functional equipment for continuous monitoring. It is unclear if TPP Gacko has installed equipment, but according to a B&H report on the EEA portal, it is not currently operational. Ugljevik has installed continuous measurement equipment, which is functional but with occasional failures.

Compliance with limit values in 2018

 

The plants included in the NERP have significantly exceeded the ceilings for 2018. The biggest problem is sulphur dioxide (SO2), with nine times the upper limit.

The highest absolute emissions come from Ugljevik 1 (83,265.84 tonnes), while Kakanj 7 has the highest exceedances – 15.38 times the upper limit in 2018.

Dust emissions from these plants were 1.24 times the upper limit. Gacko 1 has the highest exceedance, in absolute terms (1,086.61 tons) and in terms of limit exceedance (3.57 times).

NOx emissions are 1.08 times the upper limit. Ugljevik has the highest absolute emissions (3,546.76 tonnes) and Kakanj 6 has the highest exceedance (1.9 times)

Current investments

 

Due to SO2 emissions currently among the highest in Europe, the most significant investment is in the desulphurisation equipment at the Ugljevik thermal power plant. Other investments include desulphurisation equipment at TPP Kakanj 7 and Tuzla 6.

An environmental impact assessment for the De-SOx plant installation at TPP Kakanj 7 has recently been approved, but funding for the works has not yet been secured.

Source: bankwatch.org

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