Gas Power Plant Near Nis: 500 MW, Deadline Set for 2030
A steering committee, a project team and five technical teams are now in place, and next comes the shareholder agreement between EPS, Srbijagas and Azerbaijan's SOKAR.
A capacity of 500 megawatts and a deadline set for 2030 are the two numbers that have defined the gas power plant near Nis, and this month a third one joins them: five technical teams, one for each area of work. Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic met on August 14 with representatives of Elektromreza Srbije, Elektroprivreda Srbije, Srbijagas and the City of Nis to discuss the next steps in the project, the ministry said in a statement.
The plant is designed as a cogeneration facility, meaning it will produce both electricity and heat. It is the first joint venture between Elektroprivreda Srbije, Srbijagas and Azerbaijan’s SOKAR.
After the meeting, the minister described what has been done on the organizational side of the project.
Work on the project has intensified over the past period. We have formed a steering committee, a project management team and five technical teams.
The organizational structure now has three layers:
- a steering committee
- a project management team
- five technical teams, one for each area of work
What Comes Next?
A shareholder agreement between the partners. It is a precondition for everything that follows, since without it there is no legal entity to build and operate the plant.
At this moment, the most important task is finalizing the shareholder agreement between EPS, Srbijagas and SOKAR, which will enable the establishment of a joint company.
The same agreement, according to the ministry, is meant to define the commercial aspects of the project and the responsibilities of the companies carrying it out. That includes the ownership split and the way costs are shared, and those exact figures have not been disclosed in any statement so far. The value of the investment has not been announced either.
Once the agreement is signed, a joint company will be established. In parallel, the Preliminary Feasibility Study is being reconciled with the Azerbaijani side, and the ministry says its finalization is expected soon. The sequence follows the usual pattern for projects of this scale: the study provides the numbers, the agreement divides responsibility and ownership, and the joint company takes over construction.
Who Was at the Table
The meeting was attended by Elektromreza Srbije director Jelena Matejic, Elektroprivreda Srbije director Dusan Zivkovic, Srbijagas director Dusan Bajatovic and Nis mayor Dragoslav Pavlovic. The lineup shows what is still on the table.
Elektromreza Srbije is involved because the new plant needs a grid connection: a 500 megawatt facility cannot enter the system without one already prepared. The City of Nis is involved because of detailed zoning plans and land. Investors for the supporting infrastructure were also discussed at the meeting.
Srbijagas brings the fuel, EPS the production and market side of the business, and SOKAR its capital and experience in the gas supply chain. Since this is the first joint venture between the three companies, the shareholder agreement is being written from scratch.
Why Southern Serbia Is Central to the Calculation
The project is meant to boost energy security for the public, and in particular to support industrial development in southern Serbia. The heat produced by the same plant could also feed the district heating system in Nis.
The gas power plant near Nis is not an isolated item. It ties directly to the Nis-Velika Plana pipeline, a project worth nearly one billion euros built in three phases, which we have covered before: a gas fired plant needs a gas supply of matching capacity.
The next verifiable milestone in this project is the signing of the shareholder agreement and the registration of the joint company. Until then, 500 megawatts and the year 2030 remain numbers on a plan, not figures from a construction site.
