Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Serbia expects as much as 9 billion euros ($13.4 billion) to be invested in the overhaul and development of its energy sector by 2015, according to Dusan Mrakic, a state secretary with the Energy and Mining Ministry.

Serbia and “strategic partners” will invest 5 billion euros in new facilities, “while revitalization, reconstruction and modernization will attract 4 billion euros,” Mrakic told reporters today.

Serbia in January announced a tender to develop two power plants to improve the Balkan nation’s generating capacity. RWE AG, Edison SpA and AES Corp. were among those short-listed for the 2.5 billion-euro contract in May. The country is also renovating hydroelectric power plants and building natural gas infrastructure.

“Serbia’s main goals are to secure energy supplies, maintain efficiency of its systems, protect the environment and develop renewable energy sources,” Mrakic said.

The Djerdap hydroelectric plant, the country’s largest, is being upgraded and the station “will be receiving a new generator every year over the next six years,” he said.

Serbia is seeking to avoid gas shortages such as those in January when supplies of Russian gas through Ukraine were halted following a price dispute between the two ex-Soviet neighbors. The country is completing its main gas storage in the northern town of Banatski Dvor, Mrakic said.

In the coming days Serbia and Germany’s E.ON AG will sign a separate deal on storing as many as 200 million cubic meters of gas in neighboring Hungary that.

Progress is also being made on the South Stream gas pipeline, Mrakic said. “A joint venture that will be tasked with the development of South Stream will be created in 10 or 15 days,” he said.

The 900-kilometer (560-mile) South Stream pipeline, led by OAO Gazprom and Eni SpA, is planned to open at the end of 2015, linking Russia to the Balkans, where it will split into northern and southern routes. Serbia and Russia signed a deal on South Stream in 2008.

To contact the reporters on this story: Aleksandra Nenadovic in Belgrade at anenadovic@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: October 14, 2009 09:31 EDT