What does opening the energy border between Kosovo and Serbia mean?

So said Radio Europe Free of System Operator Transmission and Kosovo Market (KOSTT), stressing, as well, that the distribution of net transmission capacities on the border between Kosovo and Serbia would offer parties more opportunities for electricity trading.

Otherwise, the interconnection line represents a kind of energy limit, respectively, connects the energy systems of both or more countries, enables the exchange of electricity and increases the stability of the system, as well as the security of the power supply.

Kosovo's deputy prime minister and chief negotiator in talks with Serbia, Besnik Bislimi, said on 24 October that progress has been made in implementing the Energy Agreement and that Belgrade has agreed to issue liaison lines in operation by the end of November.

Radio Free Europe contacted the Bislimi cabinet for more details on the issue, but received no answers.

The Serbian side did not mention it and did not answer REL questions about it.

The EU's special envoy to the Kosovo-Serbia talks, Miroslav Lajcak, said on 29 October, days after meeting with Bisimi and chief Serbian negotiator Petar Petkovic, that there has been no progress in implementing the Agreement on the road to normalising relations between the two countries, but added that it is optimistic when it comes to other issues.

“There has been progress on several other important issues that we will monitor in the coming weeks”, Lajcak wrote in his Facebook account.

He did not specify exactly what progress it is about, but said he has met with the director of the Energy Community Secretariat, with which he has talked about energy co-operation in the Western Balkans.

On the other side, COSTT explained to REL that Kosovo, currently, has three fully functional liaison lines: on the border with Montenegro, Albania and Northern Macedonia.

The annual report by the Kosovo Energy Regulatory Office (ZRRE) says that Serbia's Elektrorrjeti has blocked the liaison lines for commercial use even in 2023 and that the result of this impasse has been a lack of cross-border transmission capacity.

The lack of cross-border transmission capacities, as a result of the blocking inter-concern lines for commercial operation on the part of Serbia, continues to cause serious difficulties for businessmen, such as preventing energy trade on this border, reflecting by increasing the price of cross-border capabilities on other borders and the price of importing energy, for Kosovo and for Southeast Europe”, was said, among other things, in the report released in March.

COMM STT: Operational Agreement with Serbia's Elektro-economics (EMS) enables greater co-operation

Among the last steps towards full implementation of the Energy Agreement is precisely the launching of liaison lines.

The next “could be the signing of the Operational Agreement between COST and EMS with all technical annexes which enables greater co-operation between two transmission system operators”, COST told Radio Free Europe.

Until the publication of this article, EMS did not answer the REL question whether it plans to sign such an agreement with COST.

Within the dialogue on normalisation of relations, Kosovo and Serbia reached energy agreements in 2013 and 2015, while in June 2022, the two sides approved the Guide for the implementation of these agreements.

At the time, the EU, which mediates dialogue, said the 2013 and 2015 “agreements have only partially implemented”.

Meanwhile, after the Guide's signing, the company Elektrosever, which supplies electricity to Serb majority municipalities in northern Kosovo, and collects bills that began sending to consumers since the beginning of this year.

Until then, residents of northern Mitrovica, Leposaviqi, Zvecan and Zubin Potok did not pay the electricity for about 25 years.

The company Elektrosever is owned by Serbia's Elektro-economics, but in Kosovo it is registered according to Kosovo laws.

Based on the Energy Agreement Implementation Guide, KOSTT also offered access to the Vallach substation, which provides most of the electricity for citizens in northern Kosovo. It also supplies electricity to the hydro power plant to Weiman Lake.

Valac is one of the first substations built in Kosovo in the transmission system.

He is linked to five high-volume 110 lines KV: Trepca, Skenderaj, Weiman, Ilirida (near Mitrovica) and Palaj (near Pristina) station, as well as Novi Pazar 2 (Kosovo-Serbia liaison).

Vallach's role is to provide regular electricity supplies to the parties locked up in this substation within the Kosovo Transmission System.

This substation is also important for the physical exchange of electricity between Kosovo and Serbia through the Valac-Novi Pazar liaison line.

The Kosovo Government's Energy Strategy for the period 2022-2031 is said to be strengthening regional co-operation and functioning of the Kosovo market.

It also says Kosovo is committed to implementing all obligations from the Energy Community Agreement to create a free, integrated and competitive market of electricity. /Radio Europe Free