Kosovo* to provide more support to its prosumers

The Energy Regulatory Office (ERO) of Kosovo* is preparing another mechanism for incentives for investments in rooftop solar power plants, Managing Director Petrit Pepaj said and added that net billing would allow prosumers to sell surplus electricity.

Kosovo* needs to increase the domestic electricity generation capacity as quickly as possible and the fastest option at hand is to integrate the facilities for self-consumption, according to ERO’s Managing Director Petrit Pepaj. Speaking at the Kosovo Solar Forum, he highlighted the significance of households and commercial consumers in the effort.

Pepaj said the transition toward a low-carbon future opens the way for citizens to switch from being passive energy consumers to active ones. ERO introduced the support scheme in 2017 for self-consumption and the results were favorable, but the connection capacity was limited as it was unclear how it would affect the network, he said, as quoted by Kosovo.Energy.

The incentives mechanism from 2017 was successful but the connection capacity for prosumers was limited

As renewable energy’s penetration is intensifying, there is a greater responsibility on institutions to create a suitable environment to accommodate the new sources, ERO’s chief stressed. In Pepaj’s view, increasing the number of electricity consumers that invest in rooftop solar power systems is especially important.

The Energy Regulatory Office is preparing a separate support scheme for self-consumption, he revealed and added a net billing model would be introduced. With the current net metering mechanism, prosumers can deliver excess electricity to the network and use it when they are consuming more than they are producing.

Net billing would allow owners of rooftop photovoltaic units to sell surplus power but the price calculation will encourage them to focus on self-consumption instead

Net billing allows the difference to be calculated financially, so owners of rooftop photovoltaic units can sell their surplus, Pepaj pointed out. However, he said, the price in such systems is calculated in a way that it is better for prosumers to consume the energy that they produced than to sell it.

Prosumers in Kosovo* had 2 MW of overall capacity last year. The level should be five times higher in 2025 and then rise tenfold from there by 2031, to 100 MW, according to the draft energy strategy.

Of note, North Macedonia has just enabled prosumers to sell surplus electricity.