Like many countries across Europe and Eurasia, Serbia is seeking to ensure its electricity network reliability as it decommissions older supply sources and adds more renewable, intermittent energy capacity to the grid.

In 2022, the United States Energy Association (USEA) conducted an analysis demonstrating that Serbia could effectively integrate considerable additional renewable energy without new generation for secondary and tertiary reserves. The analysis noted that reinforcements to existing transmission routes and new interconnections with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro would be necessary for secure system operation to support such new renewable energy.

USEA also recommended that Serbia consider new grid technologies and make reforms to its queue management system for considering connection applications.

Serbia’s transmission system operator used the analysis to begin making business process changes to enable more efficient renewable energy integration and to realize wholesale price benefits. The government and regulator used this study to support legal and procedural enhancements.

Some of the recommendations in the USEA analysis were used as the basis for an amendment to Serbia’s existing “Law on the Use of Renewable Energy Sources.” The amendment—passed in 2023—is intended to: regulate balancing responsibility for renewable energy projects; help resolve the backlog of connection requests to the transmission system; define the renewable energy framework; and allow auction-based trading in renewables-based energy.

Since the amendment was passed, Serbia has applied the new process to several rounds of applications for grid connection. USEA is continuing to work with the transmission system operator to improve its internal clean energy integration processes, based on best practices worldwide, and will issue a study with multiple queue management recommendations in late 2024.

The USEA Just and Secure Energy Transition (JSET) program is collaborating with the region’s transmission system operators and regulators in developing analyses and insights to accelerate the clean energy transition, ensure reliability as older plants are retired, and effectively integrate power markets throughout Europe and Eurasia.