SEEPEX becomes Serbia’s nominated electricity market operator (NEMO)

The Government of Serbia has appointed power exchange SEEPEX as the country’s nominated electricity market operator (NEMO).

The appointment of SEEPEX as the nominated electricity market operator paves the way for Serbia’s power market to couple with the markets of the neighboring European Union (EU) countries and join the European single market for electricity.

The Law on energy defines NEMO as the subject appointed to implement the coupling of Serbia’s day-ahead and intraday markets with the neighboring organized electricity markets.

SEEPEX currently only has a day-ahead market

Miloš Mladenović, director of SEEPEX, has told Balkan Green Energy News that SEEPEX was appointed as the nominated electricity market operator by a government decision and with the consent of the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia (AERS), fully in line with the relevant EU directive’s provisions regulating short-term markets.

 SEEPEX has now fulfilled the regulatory requirement to join the European single market

“We have now finally fulfilled the regulatory requirement and become an eligible partner to join the single European day-ahead market. We hope we will soon meet the same requirement for joining the single intraday market,” Mladenović said on the sidelines of the Energy 2022 conference on Mt. Zlatibor, organized by the Association of Energy Sector Specialists and Power Engineers of Serbia.

Appointing a NEMO was a requirement for market coupling with the neighboring European countries.

According to him, SEEPEX was already prepared for market coupling in business, technical, and financial terms, but lacked the regulatory framework. Also, European Union (EU) regulations are expected to be fully transposed at the regional level at the end of this year through decisions of the Ministerial Council of the Energy Community.

Resources will be secured to enable the launch of an intraday market

SEEPEX’s coupling with Montenegro’s market is expected early next year, while coupling with all four neighboring EU markets – Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Romania – is planned for late 2023 and early 2024, according to him.

It has also been confirmed, according to him, that resources will be secured for testing and other preparatory activities for the launch of an intraday market in the first half of 2023.

This will remove the last remaining obstacle for renewable energy producers to operate on the market and do their own balancing, according to Mladenović.