DRAFT OF THE AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW ON USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

The Law on the Use of Renewable energy sources (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 40/2021) (“Law”) was adopted on 22 April 2021. This Law introduced a special legal framework in the area of using renewable energy.

After the adoption of the Law, certain problems were identified in the implementation of legal solutions.

The Ministry of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia (“Ministry”) published the draft of the amendments to the Law (“Draft Amendments”). The public debate on the Draft Amendments is open from 21 January 2023 until 9 February 2023.

The main problems in the existing Law are the following:

• producers’ right to transfer the balancing responsibility to the guaranteed supplier (EPS);
• the priority of dispatch for producers, which can lead to jeopardizing the stability of the system; and
• the unresolved issue of jurisdiction between two state institutions (the Energy Agency and the Ministry) for determining the ceiling price for the auctions.

The Draft Amendments are focused on solving the existing problems by amending the Article 10 of the Law prescribing that the producers may not transfer their balancing responsibility to the guaranteed supplier. EPS will be required to take over the balancing responsibility only for producers entitled to premiums.

The Ministry determines the ceiling price for auctions for awarding premiums, not the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia, as prescribed in the Article 15 of the Law.

Finally, the Article 60 of the Law is amended so that the priority dispatch will be guaranteed only for projects below 400 kW, and from 1 January 2026 for projects below 200 kW, in order to provide a protective mechanism against jeopardizing the stability of the system.

Upon the closing of the public debate, the Ministry will analyze all the objections, proposals and suggestions of the participants and within 15 days from the closure of the debate, it will prepare a respective report.