Energy Community: Serbia is preventing electricity trade with Kosovo*

The Energy Community Secretariat opened a dispute settlement case against Serbia for failing to coordinate cross-border transmission capacity allocation with Kosovo* and make maximum capacity available to market participants.

The lack of availability of interconnection capacity at two power lines prompted the Energy Community Secretariat to start dispute settlement procedures against Serbia.

Since December 2020, KOSTT, the electricity transmission system operator (TSO) of Kosovo*, operates a single bidding zone and control area within the system of Continental Europe.

There is zero net transfer capacity at the two interconnection lines, which effectively prevents trade

However, at the interconnection lines between Niš and Kosovo B and between Kruševac and Podujevo, Serbia’s TSO Elektromreža Srbije (EMS) has not agreed with KOSTT on a mechanism to set the net transfer capacity (NTC), nor has it determined any value for the available interconnection capacity, the secretariat said. Therefore, the value of the NTC at the two interconnection lines amounts to zero, which effectively prevents trade, it added.

The Energy Community Secretariat launched the dispute settlement procedures by sending a so-called open letter to Serbia in July. The country failed to comply with the Electricity Directive 2009/72/EC and the Electricity Regulation 714/2009 by EMS not cooperating with KOSTT on coordinated cross-border capacity allocation and not making available the maximum capacity to market participants, as well as by the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia (AERS), the national regulatory authority of Serbia, not ensuring compliance by the TSO with its obligations, it added.

Serbia’s TSO Elektromreža Srbije is not cooperating with its counterpart in Kosovo* while the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia failed to ensure its compliance with Energy Community law

The purpose of the initial step is to give Serbia the possibility to react to the allegation of non-compliance with Energy Community law, and to enable the secretariat to establish the full factual and legal background of the case, according to the update.