Montenegro has ambitious but controversial plans to turn the country from a net energy importer to an energy exporter. However during the period in question few of the planned projects came to fruition and the IFIs’ engagement in Montenegro’s energy sector has been modest. The EBRD provided EUR 40.25 million in financing during this period for three projects – a metering project with Montenegrin electricity company EPCG, a biomass plant in Pljevlja and an equity investment in the Green for Growth Fund, in which the EIB also allocated EUR 3 million for Montenegro. The only other EIB project was a small component of a power sector reconstruction project (PDF) >>> that had originally been approved 87 According to a letter from IUCN, for Serbia and Montenegro in 2002. The World Bank Group financed two projects for a total of EUR 25.4 million – an energy efficiency project for public buildings and a project primarily focusing on transmission upgrades. It is worth mentioning that the German state bank KfW was more active in Montenegro during this period than any of the multilateral banks, with loans totalling EUR 51.4 million for hydropower reconstruction, thermal power plant reconstruction, energy efficiency and distribution improvements.
While the loans to the energy sector may not have been particularly large, the IFIs have been engaged in technical assistance projects, with the EBRD alone carrying out seven in the energy sector since 2009. Such projects relate to various aspects of renewable energy development such as legislation, feed-in tariffs and power purchase agreements. The IFC has also been involved in a technical assistance project to prepare hydropower plant construction on the River Moraca, a project which has been subject to strong opposition and which currently appears to be on hold.
The Moraca project is part of the infrastructure planned to export electricity to Italy through an underwater cable. A EUR 65 million loan for another controversial component of the export infrastructure – the Lastva-Pljevlja transmission line – was approved for financing by the EBRD in April 2013.
