For 3 years, 40m euros in energy loss in the north

The energy company “Electricity D.O.” since December 28th 2020 has submitted applications to the Energy Regulatory Office (ZRRE) for obtaining the license to supply the four Serb-run Serb-run municipalities in northern Kosovo with electricity. But, in the absence of a functional board, this app cannot be processed further, says a response to this office for Radio Free Europe.

The ZRGE's “Bord is dysfunctional since mid-December last year. Despite that the board currently has two members, those under the law are unable to make decisions”, said in response.

The Kosovo government has already announced the competition for board leaders as well as for two members aboard the ERE, abolishing last government competition.

Knees: municipalities in northern Kosovo, political problem
The request for the Serbian company's licensing is not being serious, Arben Djuk, former director of the Kosovo Energy Corporation. He questions the time of the company's demand, which came just a few days after Z. The RRE was left without a functioning board. Djukaj says Belgrade has repeatedly manipulated with the registration or request for Serbian companies' license.

The “is not random, it is intentional, as Serbia has consistently manipulated, waiting for a comprehensive political agreement, and then applied for license. I think of it as a time purchase. I don't know that during this time, whether the application of the Republic of Kosovo's rules and legal provisions has been made, Djukaj said.

If the application has become a conflict of Kosovo laws, I consider it to be a creative solution to overcome this problem inherited due to political issues, since the end of the war”, he added.

But in the ZERE, they say this office examines all the apps, only based on the laws and regulations that are in force.

Of course, the deal envisions the licensing of a company in the north of the country, but this does not prevent other companies from applying to receive supply licenses”, it says in response to this office.

License of a Serbian company part of Brussels Agreement

The registration and licensing of a Serbian company has been requested under dialogue in Brussels in 2013, where Kosovo and Serbia have signed the Energy Agreement. This agreement had envisioned the creation of a new company, according to Kosovo's legal framework, which would supply electricity to consumers in the four northern municipalities, inhabited by Serb majority (North Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Leposaviq).

The company “Drustvo Elektrosever D.O.” in 2018 was registered to the Business Record Agency, based in the North Mitrovica municipality, and the main activity has electricity trade.

Kusari-Lila: Any company that meets legal criteria in Kosovo could be licensed

Mimoza Kusari-Lila, chief of the Vetevendosje Movement parliamentary group, has said that any company that meets the conditions and criteria under the laws implemented in Kosovo has the right to enter into the process of supply and energy billing in northern Kosovo.

“Now whether this company will remain or any other, it is a matter of decision-making in the days or weeks to follow”, Kusari- Lila said.

Although any supply company is licensed, this, according to Djuk, is not expected to solve the problem of paying the spent energy bills, since since the end of the 1999 war, residents living in these municipalities have not paid their energy bills even though they were supplied by Kosovo.

“This is a political problem and the solution must be political. Energy consumption in that part year after year has gone up, due to misuse. So I think there is no other solution at the moment, until a company is contracted, which can offer this service in that area”, points out former KEK director Arben Djuka.

Kosovo's northern debts

About 12m euros per year are calculated the joint energy bill spent in these municipalities. From 1999 to 2017, these vehicles have been paid by consumers of other parts of Kosovo, where their bills were 3.5 percent more expensive.

But after much complaint, the Court of Appeals, late 2017, had decided to suspend the practice because it was illegal.

After this period, from December 2017 to the end of last year, 40m euros are estimated at the value of the energy drawn from the inter-containable system for covering losses for the northern part of Kosovo, says in a response by Kosovo System Operator, Transmission and Electricity Market (KOSTT). This company is public with a hundred percent of state shares.

In December of last year, COST has ruled out the power grid from the SMM block (Serbia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia) and has become an independent regulatory zone under the AK Block (Albania-Kosovo).

Thus, any deviation of the area covering Kosovo's Electronic System is considered the deviation of Kosovo and COSTT as the responsible subject for balance, has obligations from the COST-key agreement. ENTSOs to cover this deviation. On the contrary, penalisations will take place, which have higher costs of”, the COST says in response.

On Wednesday, April 28th, the Commission for Economics, Industry, Interventor and Trade in the Kosovo Assembly has approved the Vetevendosje Movement proposal, authorising the Operator of the Kosovo Transmission and Electricity Market to exploit its own revenues to cover electricity deviations in that part.

Mimoza Kusari-Lila, a member of the commission, told Radio Free Europe that COSTT has demanded 11m euros from the government for one year's compensation, but it has not mentioned any specific amount that has been divided to this institution for the next six months.

The decision does not contain any amount, it only authorises COST to compensate for the deviations for the next five or six months, so that problems do not arise with the European Network of Energy Transmission Operators (ENTSO)”, Kusari-Lila said.

Kosovo's System, Transition and Electricity Market operator is a public company with 100 per cent of the state shares.

In addition to 12m euros a year for energy bills, municipal consumers in northern Kosovo owe more than 15m euros for water bills spent since 1999. In that part, businesses already hold their own activity, in most cases unregistered in Kosovo's central institutions, and without paying tax obligations.