The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Law on Amendments to the Law on the use of renewable energy sources, which enables the introduction of new capacities for the production of electricity from renewable sources into the power system in a way that will not jeopardize the safety of its operation, the Ministry of mining and energy announced.
The adopted amendments to the law resolve the issue of a large number of requests for the connection of new solar and wind power plants, whose required capacity for connection has increased from 4.8 GW to 20 GW in the last two years, which is two and a half times more than the total capacity of all power plant in Serbia, it was stated on the website of the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
Such capacity exceeds the possibilities for balancing the power system, which caused the concern of the system operator (Elektromreža Srbije) regarding the operation of the power system, so by amending the law, the problem was solved so that the system operator will be able to postpone the connection of power plants to the system if it turns out, in a transparent in the process of developing the transmission system development plan, that there is not enough reserve for balancing, but at the same time investors are left with the opportunity to avoid delaying the connection, if they themselves or through another market participant provide additional capacity for balancing.
– The changes protected the guaranteed supplier (Elektroprivreda Srbije) from the financial risk of assuming balancing responsibility for all producers from renewable energy sources. The law retained this obligation of the guaranteed supplier only for privileged producers who entered the incentive system and for a limited period of time, while commercial projects will solve the issue of balance responsibility on a commercial basis – it is stated in the announcement.
The market premium system has been further improved in the interest of citizens, as it will enable investors to compete with each other at auctions to obtain incentives who will offer more capacity for the needs of guaranteed supply of citizens and/or direct contracts to end customers, which will allow green energy to remain and be consumed in Serbia, instead of being exported.
Special novelties refer to the capacities of prosumers, where limits are defined for households and other end customers in a way that will reconcile the interests of the stability of the power system and the interests of prosumers.
As stated, households will be able to install solar panels up to 10.8 kW, and other customers up to 150 kW, maintaining priority access to the system, without balance responsibility. In this way, the concept of prosumers is oriented towards households and small businesses. Large industry will exercise its rights to self-supply through the concept of an active customer after the amendments to the Energy Act.
The transition period was also taken into account, so that it should be possible for industry up to 5 MW to install solar panels until July 1st, 2024, according to the old regulations.
On the other hand, the new regulations should contribute to the optimization of household investments in accordance with real annual consumption and encourage prosumers not to use electricity for heating in periods when it is the most expensive.
The adopted changes achieve the necessary balance between the interest of having more energy from renewable sources and the interest of having safe operation of the system and security of supply, which is important for achieving greater energy independence of Serbia and the long-term security of energy supply to citizens and the economy at sustainable prices, according to the announcement.
Source: eKapija