The EUR 250m project is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017. Three power stations have already been launched upstream from Brežice: in Boštanj, Blanca and Krško. Following the power station in Brežice, one more is to be built in Mokrice, some 10km downstream.

The Brežice power plant will have a rated capacity of 45 megawatts and an annual capacity of 161 gigawatt hours.

The remote-monitored facility will contribute around 1% of the electricity produced in Slovenia annually.

The conventional dammed hydro power station with five sluices will have three generators with a rated capacity of 500 cubic metres of water per second.

Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek will attend the event marking the launch of the construction, after she inaugurated the Krško power station last June.

HESS, a state-owned company, started building the five power stations in 2002. The last to be built is the facility in Mokrice, with construction expected to begin in a year. The Mokrice plant will expectedly be finished in 2018 or 2019.