Boškov Most Hydro Power Plant, referred to as Boškov Most HPP, is a derivation plant planned to be built in Mala Reka valley, in the southernmost part of the

Mavrovo National Park The Mavrovo National Park ( mk, Национален парк Маврово) is the largest of the four national parks of North Macedonia. Located in the west of the country, it spreads over an area of about and is characterized by deep canyons ...

, in

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

. It will have a total capacity of 71,5 MW. Construction is expected to last 4 years. The project raises several environmental concerns, including threats on the survival of the

Balkan lynx The Balkan lynx (''Lynx lynx balcanicus'') is a subspecies of the Eurasian lynx in the genus ''Lynx''. It is found in Albania, Kosovo, eastern Serbia, and western North Macedonia, with smaller populations in Montenegro. It is considered a nation ...

.The hydropower plant Boskov Most.
''CEE Bankwatch''. May 2014, Retrieved 20 August 2014.

Project details

The project is being developed by

Elektrani na Severna Makedonija Elektrani na Severna Makedonija or ESM ( mk, Електрани на Северна Македонија, ЕСМ, litt. "Power plants of North Macedonia") is a government-owned electricity producing company in North Macedonia. History In 2005, ...

(ESM), a 100%

state owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...

electric power utility of North Macedonia responsible for

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

and power generation. As of 2020, the public company operates 554 MW of

hydropower Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, converting the Pot ...

capacity, representing 40% of its total installed

power generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stor ...

capacity. Boškov Most HPP is intended to utilise the

hydro power Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of a wa ...

potential of Mala Reka river and 6 of its

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage b ...

. The facility will include a rock-filled

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and ...

and its accumulation

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

near the village of

Tresonče Tresonče ( mk, Тресонче ) is a mountainous village located in the Mavrovo and Rostuša Municipality in western North Macedonia. It is a mountain village populated by Macedonian Orthodox Christians. There are also several Orthodox churc ...

, and a 71.5 MW power station located lower in the valley, near Mogorče. Water will be conveyed from the first to the latter by a 8,750 m long and 3.3 m diameter underground

penstock A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. The term is inherited from the earlier technology of mill ponds and watermills. H ...

, and from six smaller water intakes on Mala Reka tributaries via supply canals totalling 10.7 km. It will generate an estimated 117 GWh of power per year, according to the preliminary design studies. The total cost of the project was estimated €144 million as of 2019, rising from €84 million in 2011, and €107 million in 2014.

History

Plans to build the Boškov Most HPP date back to 1983 (as a substantially smaller 45 MW facility) but it was postponed several times due to financial problems. The project under its current design started in 2010. In November 2011, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (

EBRD The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially foc ...

) signed on loaning a country €65 million for the construction of the project. The rest is to be provided by the AD Elektrani na Severna Makedonija (ESM). The EBRD cancelled its loan in January 2017, after a seven-year environmental activism campaign again the project, led by biologist

Ana Colovic Lesoska Ana Čolović Lešoska (born c.1979) is a Macedonian biologist who since 2011 has campaigned against the construction of dams for hydroelectric power production in the Mavrovo National Park in order to safeguard threatened species, including the B ...

Importance for the energy sector of North Macedonia

As of 2020, only 26.6% of technically usable hydropower potential in North Macedonia has been developed, which remains far under the European average of ~50%. Unfavourable

energy mix The energy mix is a group of different primary energy sources from which secondary energy for direct use - such as electricity - is produced. Energy mix refers to all direct uses of energy, such as transportation and housing, and should not be c ...

, strong dependence on energy import, obsolete

energy system An energy system is a system primarily designed to supply energy-services to end-users. The intent behind energy systems is to minimise energy losses to a negligible level, as well as to ensure the efficient use of energy. The IPCC Fifth ...

and inefficiency in energy production and use are the main problems of the energy sector of North Macedonia. North Macedonia

import An import is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. In international trade, the importation and exportation of goods are limited ...

s roughly a quarter of its annual electricity needs. Domestic energy production is based mainly on the low-quality domestic

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...

and

hydro Hydro from Ancient Greek word ὕδωρ (húdōr), meaning ''water''. Hydro may also refer to: Energy technologies * Water-derived power or energy: ** Hydropower, derived from water ** Hydroelectricity, in electrical form * "Hydro", AC mains ...

. The purpose of the Boškov most HPP is to support North Macedonia's drive to improve the security and quality of its energy supplies, as well as promoting

renewable sources A renewable resource, also known as a flow resource, is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of ti ...

of energy generation. Once operating, the plant will enable the nation to reduce electricity imports and in addition decrease the

carbon intensity An emission intensity (also carbon intensity or C.I.) is the emission rate of a given pollutant relative to the intensity of a specific activity, or an industrial production process; for example grams of carbon dioxide released per megajoule ...

of North Macedonia's generation sector. It will also help North Maceonia meet its widely accepted objective to reach 20% energy production from renewable sources. Boškov Most HPP is conceived as a

peaking power plant Peaking power plants, also known as peaker plants, and occasionally just "peakers", are power plants that generally run only when there is a high demand, known as peak demand, for electricity. Because they supply power only occasionally, the power ...

, operating near rated capacity around 5 hours daily during

peak demand Peak demand on an electrical grid is simply the highest electrical power demand that has occurred over a specified time period (Gönen 2008). Peak demand is typically characterized as annual, daily or seasonal and has the unit of power. Peak dem ...

Controversial issues

Environmental impact

The

is one of the oldest national parks in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, famous for its pristine nature. The park hosts more than 1,000 different plant species.

Trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

species,

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

s and

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...

s are an important part of the

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

. The park is also a centre of the remaining population of the

Balkan Lynx The Balkan lynx (''Lynx lynx balcanicus'') is a subspecies of the Eurasian lynx in the genus ''Lynx''. It is found in Albania, Kosovo, eastern Serbia, and western North Macedonia, with smaller populations in Montenegro. It is considered a nation ...

, an endangered subspecies of the

Eurasian Lynx The Eurasian lynx (''Lynx lynx'') is a medium-sized wild cat widely distributed from Northern, Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia and Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. It inhabits temperate and boreal forests up to an eleva ...

. The territory where it moves is thus a

critical habitat Critical habitat is a habitat area essential to the conservation of a listed species, though the area need not actually be occupied by the species at the time it is designated. This is a specific term and designation within the U.S. Endangered Spec ...

and represents an area where measures for protection and preservation of this species should be undertaken. Putting any additional stress on this source population may lead to the

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

of the species. Boškov HPP is designed to produce peak energy which means that the water from Mala Reka river and its

will be diverted into a

and on demand released once a day. Aside from the fact that the entire valley will suffer from the diversion of the majority of its natural water supplies, it will also result in daily flushes, which have enormous negative impacts on

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

and species populations in the river sections below the HPP.

Legal issues

The

Environmental impact assessment Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...

prepared for the project is lacking significant information vital for the precise and objective evaluation of the impact of the project on the environment, specifically data on the

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s in the project area and complete absence of the

from the study. The project is also not in accordance with Law on Nature protection specifically with Article 74, which does not envisage the use of

natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...

s for energy as a part of

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

management and Article 75 which lists the prohibited activities in the national park. Furthermore, the project is not in accordance with the following

international convention International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

s signed and ratified by the government of North Macedonia: Bern Convention,

Bonn Convention The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, also known as the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) or the Bonn Convention, is an international agreement that aims to conserve migratory species throughout their r ...

and Convention on Biodiversity.

Funding plan cancellation

After over five years of campaigns against the Boskov Most project, CEE Bankwatch along with its member groups, Macedonian center for environmental research and information, Eko-svest, and Macedonian environmental lawyer association, Front 21/42, finally welcomed the cancellation of the project. In 2015, just few days after the

Berne Convention The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal to agree on a set of leg ...

decision on Mavrovo, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

withdrew its funds from the Lukovo Pole project, thus preventing the project from being realised. It took the

another year to cancel its EUR 65 million loan for Boškov Most as well, stating that it fully respects Bern Convention’s recommendation and believes that the project should be suspended.

References

External links

Boskov Most Hydro Power PlantThe hydropower plant Boskov Most
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boskov Most Hydro Power Plant Hydroelectric power stations in North Macedonia Proposed hydroelectric power stations Dams in North Macedonia Mavrovo and Rostuša Municipality Proposed renewable energy power stations in North Macedonia