Serbia will have its own Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan – NECP by the year-end, said Branislava Lepotic Kovacevic, Ph.D, President of the Serbian Energy Law Association, at the “Regional Approach – Belgrade 2022” conference organized by Energynomics.
Serbian Energy Law Association was established in 2018, as an inter-disciplinary body to offer knowledge about energy legislation.
”It is very important to have a very clear legal framework. A good explanation and understanding of this legal framework is very important for investors. I am happy that Serbia adopted a new energy law package last year. Some secondary legislation was adopted, too, but there are more legal provisions still under preparation. Other newer laws include the use of renewable sources, adopted separately for the sector. We adopted the energy efficiency law, harmonized with the EU legislation, supporting new developments. There are also changes in the mining sector… The first law of energy in Serbia was adopted in 2004, and that was the first law to follow the EU way in the energy sector. A very important article is the obligation to adopt an Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan. We also have a national development strategy, but the NECP is something new, that also shows the importance of climate in energy. We would not develop energy as a separate part. We also need to think about the climate issue…and therefore the Plan will be adopted by the year-end… Also, the new Energy law defines new activities and new market players. This means we open the legislation to develop our activities – we also think about electricity storage, hydrogen and trading, also developing a wholesale gas sector. The new market players are prosumers, electricity storage and aggregators,” she said.
The legal framework for the electro-mobility sector is also expected soon, and there’s a new definition for the thermal energy, she added.
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The renewables law is absolutely new while using a small part of the previous framework.
”We define renewable technologies which are available to be supported, which is very important when thinking about investments. There are two systems of subsidies for renewables, feed-in tariffs and market premiums. The subsidies have a cap and a deadline. Feed-in tariffs apply for capacities smaller than 500 kW, and for larger capacities, there is a line between feed-in tariffs and premiums. There is also support offered to renewable heat and innovative technologies and so we developed our base of legislation for renewables in the transport sector. Investors that would not ask for subsidies also obtain guarantees of origin for their power generation,” she also said.
Energy efficiency also has a central role in the national Strategy plan. ”There is a new institution, the Directorate for promoting and financing energy efficiency,” she went on to say.
”Finally, there are new amendments on mining exploration…which also considers decarbonizing and environmental protection.”
The “Regional Approach – Belgrade 2022” conference was organized by Energynomics and its partners ABB Romania and Wiren, with the support of the Romanian Energy Center – REC and the Energy Community.
