The City of Banja Luka won an EBRD bronze award for the construction of the new biomass- fuelled district heating plant as one of the best projects financed by this international financial institution during 2017.

This respectable award, for which many global EBRD-financed projects applied, was awarded in the sustainable energy projects category during the EBRD`s 27th annual summit, which took place on May 9 and 10 in Jordan.

– This is a great reward, which shows that we have successfully implemented a project that will ensure continuous heating services at prices that are at the same level as they used to be for the majority of citizens. On the other hand, the financial burden of the city will be reduced as the old district heating facility accummulated a debt of more than 90 million BAM and therefore became unviable both financially and technically. With this international award the project was affirmed on an international platform too, Radojicic said.

The award was given to the project of construction and rehabilitation of district heating system in Banja Luka. After decades of continuous challenges regarding thermal energy supply in the city, the environment friendly, biomass-fuelled district heating plant was put into operation this February.

The new district heating plant was constructed in cooperation between the City of Banja Luka and the IEE company through an EBRD loan borrowed by the city.