International Arbitration Panel Awards Croatia €40M Over Krško Nuclear Power Plant

On December 17, Hrvatska Elektroprivreda, the national power company of Croatia, was awarded more than €40 million (approximately $46.5 million) in compensation from Slovenia for undelivered electricity from the jointly owned Krško Nuclear Power Plant. The long-running dispute was arbitrated by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Hunton & Williams LLP has advised HEP in the arbitration since 2004.

The dispute began in the late 1990s, when Slovenia and Croatia were unable to agree on the basic provisions of the governing agreements regarding the power plant and Slovenia disconnected electricity lines from the Krško NPP to Croatia, terminated all electricity deliveries to HEP, and issued a governmental “decree” which HEP claimed affected its rights as a 50 percent owner and manager of the plant. HEP also sought compensation for power loss when Slovenia failed to resume electricity from the Krško power plant to Croatia.

The Hunton & Williams team advising HEP is led is by Robert W. Hawkins and Stephen M. Sayers, working with Josip Lebegner, principal representative of HEP.

Hunton & Williams’ international arbitration and transnational litigation practice represents clients before global arbitral institutions, including investor-state arbitrations before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and commercial arbitrations before the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC); the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA); the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC); the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague; and the American Arbitration Association and its International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR).