Montenegro publishes draft Energy Law for public debate

Montenegro is receiving comments on its draft Energy Law until September 16. The new provisions are harmonizing the domestic legal framework with the one in the European Union. They define new participants in the market as well as their activities, rights and obligations.

Western Balkan countries are upgrading their legal frameworks in the energy sector. Montenegro has completed the draft Energy Law, aiming to modernize the system and transpose EU legislation. The public debate with the submission of objections, suggestions and proposals lasts until September 16.

The law will determine the rules of electricity production, transmission, distribution, storage and supply, the organization and functioning of the power and gas sector – especially the rules on empowering and protecting buyers, open access to the integrated market, access of third parties to the transmission and distribution infrastructure, legal decoupling requirements – as well as the rules on the regulatory body’s independence and the models of its cooperation with the transmission system operator, the document reads.

Aggregators, active buyers, energy communities

The Ministry of Energy included in the draft the definitions of the new market participants and their rights and obligations. Among them are aggregators, active buyers and citizen energy communities.

Active buyer is an end buyer, or a group of end buyers functioning together, that consumes or stores electricity that it generates, or sells energy that it generates on its own or participates in flexibility and energy efficiency programs, under the condition that the said activities aren’t its primary commercial or professional business, the document adds.

The category is envisaged participating in all electricity markets, working directly or through aggregators and participating in providing balancing and flexibility services and energy efficiency programs.

According to the definition, a citizen energy community has a right to access to all energy markets, directly or via aggregation. It would be able to function as an active buyer of the electricity that it produces itself. It is getting an opportunity to organize, among its members or shareholders, a system of sharing electric energy produced in facilities in the community’s ownership.

End buyer can earn from increasing or lowering its demand

The policy creators also addressed the rising need for managing consumption, a concept known as consumer response. The new system would entail changing the electricity consumption of end buyers from their usual or current patterns, responding to market signals.

It will include variable electricity prices or cash incentives. End buyers will be able to offer to cut or bolster their demand in return for a fee, either independently or through aggregation.

The draft introduces provisions on electric vehicle charging stations, electricity storage and the contracts with a dynamic electricity price calculation.

CGES to be auth0rized to offer curtailed grid connection plugs

Transmission system operator, CGES, is getting the right to limit the guaranteed connnection capacity or offer a grid connection that implies some operational curtailments. The objective is to secure the economic efficiency of the new production facilities as well as the power generation and battery energy units.

Energy producers, the industry and owners of energy storage systems are getting a chance to build connection infrastructure themselves. Then the Montenegrin transmission and distribution system operators (CEDIS) buys it off the submitter.