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In 2021, the Serbian Government adopted a set of regulations in the field of renewable energy sources. Their proclaimed aim was harmonization with the Sofia Declaration on the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans and COP21.

What in particular caught the eye in the new regulations were auctions for premiums for wind farms, laid down in the Regulation on the Quota in the Market Premium System for Wind Farms. The regulation set aside a quota of 400MW for the allocation of premiums for wind farms (for more information the procedure for awarding these premiums, please see our earlier post).

Although there were indications even a year ago that the auctions were about to take place soon, this has not happened, as not all necessary by-laws have been adopted yet. However, the Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy has recently announced that the process of adopting the remaining by-laws is almost complete and that the first auctions for wind farms will be announced in early 2023.

The delay in adopting the necessary by-laws occurred since some of the main stakeholders – the incumbent electric power producer EPS, transmission system operator EMS, as well as the Serbian Energy Agency (the sectoral regulator) – all boycotted the Ministry’s working group for drafting the by-laws,

Specifically, EPS and EMS apparently fear that the large number of requests for connecting wind farms to the Serbian production and transmission system would jeopardize its stability and even lead to blackouts. In particular, according to the current draft of the Decree on Balance Responsibility, the balancing responsibility is on EPS, and not on the users of the network, which regulators believe will lead to enormous costs for the energy sector as a whole.

Recently, at a “10th Lap Time Conference”, organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia, the Ministry made new announcements regarding the auctions for wind farms. Notably, Serbia’s energy minister Dubravka Đedović stated that the Ministry will adopt a three-year plan for auctions, which will make it easier for investors to plan their investments in this field. It was also announced that the regulatory framework will be completed and first auctions announced in the first quarter of 2023.

Since there were similar announcements around the same time last year, it remains to be seen whether the regulators and other stakeholders in the energy sector will now come to an agreement and enable the adoption of the missing by-laws.

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