The company Crodux, owned by Ivan Čermak, could soon (or finally) begin implementing one of the largest private investments in the Croatian energy sector – the construction of a gas-fired power plant in Slavonski Brod with a capacity of 600 MW and a hefty 450 million euros.
It has received a ruling from the Administrative Court in Osijek related to the location permit, which had stalled the project. Crodux states that this ruling has opened new options for the project’s development. The project is continuing, they briefly emphasize, and a final investment decision is expected soon. They are not providing further details at this time.
Let us recall that after an Environmental Impact Study was completed and passed public consultation, a prerequisite for obtaining the location permit was created. However, the conditions set by the Ministry of Construction slowed down, or rather halted, the project’s realization because the location permit conditioned the issuance of a construction permit for the power plant on obtaining an operating permit for the connecting power line. Crodux previously pointed out that this is contrary to Croatian regulations and that such conditions are not stipulated in the location permit for any energy production facility. As a result, Crodux could not start construction planned for early 2014 and filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court in Osijek at the beginning of that year, which it has finally won.
The power plant will be located in the area of the Port Authority of Slavonski Brod, and alongside it, the construction of a bioethanol production plant is planned. According to estimates, the construction of the facility could create jobs for more than eight hundred people, and when the power plant is completed, about thirty people will be employed.
