Austria will cooperate in the construction of hydroelectric plants on the Sava river

Ljubljana, 23 September - The Slovenian minister of power engineering, Miha Tomšič, and the Austrian minister of economy, Wolfgang Schussel, signed, last week, a letter concerning the cooperation of Slovenia and Austria in building hydroelectric power plants on Sava and reforming the Slovenian power production. At today's press conference minister Tomšič said that this is the first such agreement between Austria and Slovenia. The first result of this letter will be the founding of a mixed Austro-Slovenian joint-stock company "Sava". It will be founded by Savske Elektrarne, Smelt, and the Austrian firms Stuag and Verbundplan. "Sava" will engage in the realization of the project of a chain of hydroelectric power plants on Sava. The Slovenian side will participate with 40%, and the Austrian with 60% of the capital. The almost constructed hydroelectric plant in Vrhovo due to be completed next year, will be counted as a part of the Slovenian share. After that, they will begin the construction of the next in a chain of six plants, HE Boštanj. One plant will then be built every two years. One of the conditions that Austria would invest in the Sava chain is the gradual closing of the Nuclear Power Plant Krško, but Slovenia is not in the position to make such a decision independently, because 50% of the original investment was covered by the Republic of Croatia.