Kosovo expects millions of euros profit after secession from Serbia's energy bloc

These projections make government officials on the run from Kosovo and those of the Kosovo Transmission System Operator and Electricity Market (KOSTT).

Early December (2019), the Kosovo Transmission and Electricity Market System Operator (KOSTT) and Albania Broadcasting System Operator (OST) have signed in Tirana the agreement for the establishment of the Kosovo-Albanian Energy System regulatory block, which will begin operating by April 2020.

According to COSTT, the European Network of Operators of the Energy Transmission System (ENTSO) has been informed of this agreement.

Chief Executive Chief of the Kosovo Transmission and Energy Market Operator (KOSTT), Ilir Shala, in a conversation for Radio Free Europe, said that with the signing of the agreement with Albania, Kosovo secedes from the umbrella of the Serbian regulatory zone ( EMS Serbia's Electronic Network becomes part of the OST (Operator of Albania's Broadcasting System).

Shala says that from 2008 until now, the state of Serbia, according to him, has illegally exploited Kosovo's transmission network and has collected revenues of about 65m euros.

“In a financial or commercial respect defines the dimension of energy capacities within the Kosovo bloc Albania, where, according to agreed calculations, savings will be around 4m euros annually. ForST, the benefits will be 1.4m euros, meanwhile for COSTT at 2.6m euros”, Shala said.

The outgoing minister of economic development, Valdrin Luka, said Kosovo suffers losses of up to 12m euros a year from the Serbia System Operator (EMS), which continues to collect capacity access to Kosovo border lines with neighbouring states.

But in terms of Kosovo's financial losses from the energy network, Luka says more than 10m euros a year are the amounts of energy bills spent by consumers of Serb-run northern Kosovo municipalities, where they are not paid for energy spent.

As of April of next year, he says Kosovo will control energy boundaries and, as a result, begin to register the means for energy it passes on Kosovo's transmission. And the northern part, according to him, can be treated to a final solution.

In addition to the agreement on uniting Kosovo's energy system, Albania, these two states have a final project, but that has not yet begun to implement.

It's about the energy line of Kosovo Interconnection Albania that was declared a project completed three years ago, but according to Kosovo Government officials, the main reason for the failure to reactivate this line has been Serbia, which, reportedly, has not implemented the Energy Agreement signed in Brussels in 2013, between representatives of Pristina and Belgrade, with the ease of the European Union.

The same agreement was later confirmed by both Kosovo and Serbian prime ministers in August 2015, when they had renegotiated and agreed to its implementation.

But, despite even the involvement of high political levels, the agreement with Serbia, which mainly included the power supply of northern Kosovo municipalities, has never been implemented.