ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has concluded an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract on the Flue Gas Desulfurization system (hereinafter “FGD”) for Nikola Tesla A coal-fired power plant owned by the Public Enterprise Electric Power Industry of Serbia under the consortium that ITOCHU formed with Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (hereinafter “MHPS”), Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe GmbH, and MPP “JEDINSTVO” a.d., a Serbian major construction firm, and this is our first reference of FGD project in Serbia.

In this project, two (2) FGDs are installed in Nikola Tesla A coal-fired power plant (for Units No. 3 through 6, with a total generating capacity of approximately 1,300 MW), which is located in Obrenovac City, Republic of Serbia (in the southwest, some 40 km from Belgrade), and the scale of these FGDs is one of world’s largest class.

The Serbian government is obliged to meet environmental standard, almost equivalent to those applied in E.U. by the end of 2023. However, FGDs are not installed in most of the coal-fired power plant, which represent about 60% of the total electric generating capacity in Serbia. As a reduction countermeasure against air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and particulates emission from the coal-fired power plants, the installation of FGDs will be realized for the abovementioned power plant, which represent about one-quarter of the total electric generating capacity in Serbia. As for the funds for this project, the yen loan (28.2 billion yen) that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has decided to grant to Serbia in 2011 for the sake of promotion of environmental conservation, will be applied.

MHPS has an abundant supply record in the environmental industry, inclusive of FGDs, therefore, by application of its latest and advanced technologies, a drastic reduction of the loads on the environment and resident of the area can be achieved and thus, it’s expected to make a significant contribution to society and the environment in Serbia.

In Serbia, there is a plan of FGDs installation to the other existing coal-fired power plants. ITOCHU will actively conduct global environment improvement activities including those future environment projects and continue to make social and areal contributions.