96359 October 4, 2011 A Cleaner Power Grid in Bosnia and Herzegovina Jasmina Hadzic, Communications Assistant in the Bosnia and Herzegovina World Bank Office, offers this story. Photo Gallery Stjepan Tomic can see the chimney of the Kakanj Power Plant from his backyard on the Bosna River. He remembers when the plant spewed so much ash that it covered his village. “There was a lot of dust and sometimes when the chimneys were firing, ash particles fell like snow on those near the power plant. You could even see footprints in the dust on the road. And the dust was very noticeable on rooftops,” he says, adding, “There is a lot less dust now.” Related Links That is because the Kakanj Power Plant in Bosnia and World Bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina  Herzegovina is being reconstructed as part of a regional Energy Community of South East program supported by the World Bank to rehabilitate and Europe Project (2006-2012) strengthen the power system in Southeastern Europe, and to establish a regional electricity market. Bosnia and Elektroprivreda of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s power infrastructure was badly damaged Herzegovina  during the war of 1992 - 1995, and its citizens were Elektroprivreda of Croat Community disconnected from the regional grid. Herzeg-Bosnia The Bosnia and Herzegovina project aims to improve the Elektroprivreda of Republika Srpska environmental performance of four coal-fired power plants and improve the safety of dams in the country. It funded the installation of a bag filter on one of the Kakanj Power Plant’s three power blocks to catch ash before it is released in the air. This emissions control system is the first of its kind in the Western Balkans. Another innovation is the placement of emissions monitors in several public areas in the nearby town and its suburbs, so that citizens are kept informed of the air quality in their immediate surroundings. Measurements show air quality has improved significantly and will be even cleaner once a second filter, financed by the power company, starts working next year. “The filter has made a difference,” says Tomic. “The ash dump is still a problem but it is currently being worked on.” The ash dump he is referring to is a mountain of ash and slag leftover from Tomic with his wife power generation that the power company dumped on a nearby hillside for almost sixty years. Thanks to years of rainfall, the heap is slowly turning into concrete. But when the wind blows, ash still flies. With World Bank funding, the power company is reshaping the gigantic hillside of dumped ash into safer, more stable terraces, and investing in infrastructure to collect and drain water cleanly. Once that work is done, the area will be planted with grass and trees. A fence will prevent illegal dumping and deter people from falling over the edge of what is locally known as ‘the depot’. “Recultivation of the depot is a long-term project that we are undertaking in order to keep within the legal framework and to reduce environment pollution,” says Ilijas Hasanbegovic, Technical Manager, Kakanj Thermal Power Plant. As it operates, the plant continues to produce ash, which it now wets as it dumps, in order to keep the amount of dust under control. And it will no longer pile the ash into a gigantic heap, but layer it. And as the plant keeps to stricter environmental standards, it is now using 15 times less river water for cooling Ilijas Hasanbegovic than it once did. Three other power plants around Bosnia and Herzegovina are being reconstructed under the project. Work is expected to be finished by June 2012. Since 1996, transmission stations and hundreds of kilometers of power lines have been rehabilitated thanks to projects financed by the World Bank, in cooperation with the European Union (EU), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the German Development Bank (KfW). Measurements show air quality has improved significantly and will be even cleaner once a second filter, financed by the power company, starts working next year.