Energy Community (EC) Secretariat has announced a new technical assistance project under the Western Balkan 6 (WB6) Initiative launched to support day-ahead electricity market (DAM) establishment in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

In its statement, the Energy Community Secretariat said that on January 25 the project was launched to last three months and to provide support the Macedonian electricity transmission system operator (MEPSO) in finding the best solutions for organizing electricity day-ahead market trade.

This project, according to the EC Secretariat goes hand in hand with the continuing endeavors to establish regional day-ahead market coupling in the Western Balkans.

In mid-December, regional projects for technical assistance to support day-ahead market coupling and cross-border balancing in the Western Balkans were kicked-off at meetings held under the Western Balkan 6 (WB6) Initiative in Vienna.

First sub-regional market coupling projects, as it was announced, were supposed to go live by mid-January 2018. As beneficiaries of the two contracts were 6 Energy Community Contracting Parties, namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

“The objective of the technical assistance implemented by the Energy Community Secretariat is to assist the WB6 and neighboring EU transmission system operators (TSO), national regulatory authorities and power exchanges in the preparation and implementation of market coupling projects and platforms for cross-border balancing cooperation. The projects are expected to be finalized by the end 2018 as agreed under the Western Balkan 6 Memorandum of Understanding (WB6 MoU),” the Energy Community Secretariat said in a statement.

These are the two largest projects to be implemented under the contract signed between the European Commission and the Energy Community Secretariat to provide technical assistance to connectivity in the WB in relation to the regional energy market.