TENDERING: Consulting services to design carbon tax for Energy Community Contracting Parties

The Energy Community Secretariat has published a public call for the provision of consulting services to design carbon pricing for the Energy Community Contracting Parties, setting November 25 as the deadline to file bids.

The Energy Community Secretariat is looking for qualified consultants to carry out a study on carbon tax design for the Energy Community, the Secretariat said in a press release.

The objective of this project is to assess and propose the design of an effective carbon pricing mechanism conducive to decarbonisation of the Energy Community Contracting Parties’ (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine) electricity sectors in a cost-effective and socially acceptable way.

The work shall result in: a) an overview of the available policy instruments and measures to initiate the process of decarbonization of power sector through a carbon pricing mechanisms in the Energy Community Contracting Parties; b) detailed evaluation of these instruments and measures, c) recommendation of elements of a carbon pricing design, estimated timeline for implementation and necessary resources for each Contracting Party and, as the case may be, at the Energy Community level, the public call reads.

The contract duration is from December 2019 until September 2020.

The Secretariat published a study on coal subsidies, carbon pricing

There have recently been signals that Energy Community Contracting Parties could get a carbon tax.

In February this year, David Žarković, head of open market trade at public power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), said that the EU is considering the introduction of a carbon tax for the countries of the Western Balkans.

Two months later, the Energy Community Secretariat published preliminary results of a study on subsidies for coal-fired power plants and called on the Contracting Parties, among other things, to establish carbon pricing.

In June, the Secretariat revealed the final results of the study which showed that the recognition of hidden subsidies, such as costs of capital and carbon, brings the costs of production of electricity from coal to above 65 EUR/MWh.