In January 2023, the Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy initiated the procedure for the amendments to the Law on the Use of the Renewable Energy Sources (“Amendments”) whose purpose was, among others, to limit the installed power of the prosumers.
The initial draft of the Amendments limited the installed power for the prosumers to 10 MW which was in general welcomed by the pundits and the public during the public hearing process. However, the Serbian distribution system operator (Elektrodistribucija Srbije) objected to the proposed limitation and proposed that instead of 10 MW, the installed power should be limited to 6.9 kW for households, and to the 150 kW for commercial prosumers Despite the Republic of Serbia’s strong commitment to a green energy agenda, the Ministry of Mining and Energy accepted a significant reduction without offering any clear or lawful justification, apart from the unsupported argument that this is the case in other EU countries. The Amendments with decreased installed power were confirmed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia and entered the official procedure for adoption of the amendments to the law before the National Assembly, calling into question the future of the prosumers in Serbia. This led to a series of public discussions redefining the proposed limits, after which the Ministry of Mining and Energy unofficially confirmed that limits to the installed power of commercial prosumers will be temporarily increased to 5 MW while for household prosumers limitation of installed power will be increased to 10.8 kW.
On 28 April 2023, the official draft of the Amendments adopted by the National Assembly officially confirmed the decision, increasing the limitation of installed power for household prosumers to 10.8 kW and stipulating that a limitation of 150 kW of installed power for commercial prosumers will not be applied to the commercial prosumers which have to initiate the procedure for the connection of energy facility before 1 July 2024. The connection procedure shall be deemed initiated on the date when a request for issuance of technical conditions for connection was submitted to the system operator. For those commercial prosumers who initiate the connection procedure after 1 July 2024, the installed power will be limited to 150 KW.
The Amendments entered into force on 7 May 2023, while the provisions related to the limitation of installed power for household prosumers (10.8 kW) will become effective on 1 January 2024.
By Petar Mitrovic, Partner, and Nemanja Providzalo, Senior Associate, Karanovic & Partners
