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Today representatives of transmission system operators, national regulatory authorities, and ministries of energy and power exchanges of the Western Balkans 6 countries1 committed to implementing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) setting out general principles of cooperation as well as concrete actions to develop the regional electricity market. The memorandum of understanding was signed at the premises of the Energy Community Secretariat in Vienna. The MoU’s signatories agreed to implement: day-ahead market integration between the six countries of the WB6 region with the aim of achieving market coupling of national organised day-ahead markets with at least one neighbouring WB6 or EU country by July 2018 and cross-border balancing cooperation between the WB6 countries by December 2018. The MoU also commits its signatories to follow up with legally binding agreements between the concerned parties. It will facilitate the implementation of the regional electricity market objectives agreed upon by the Energy Ministers in August 2015 and will improve the coordination between Western Balkans 6 in order to create a competitive, efficient and integrated European energy market. Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Mr Janez Kopač, said: “The creation of a regional electricity market in the Western Balkans requires active engagement and dedication of all key energy sector players. In terms of having all the necessary preconditions in place for a regional electricity market, we are not there yet as our WB6 monitoring work has shown. However, today’s memorandum of understanding certainly brings us closer to reaching the WB6 commitments agreed at the Western Balkans 6 Summit in Vienna last year. I am thrilled that we were able to bring together all the direct stakeholders – TSOs, regulators, energy ministries and power exchanges – of all six Western Balkan countries under one umbrella agreement.” “Integrating power markets in the region and with the rest of Europe is an important step in delivering more social and economic welfare to all customers”, commented Konstantin Staschus, ENTSO-E Secretary-General. “Transmission system operators will continue working hard towards the goal of creating a regional electricity market in the Western Balkans in a consistent and coordinated manner with the work already undertaken within the European Union, and of integrating it with the overall European Internal Electricity Market. As in many other processes, TSOs support policy-makers and regulators, and in this instance of the Energy Community, in building ‘power bridges’ between countries”. The signature of the Memorandum of Understanding by Kosovo* representatives is pending the entry into force of the Connection Agreement between KOSTT and the relevant ENTSO-E members. This MoU is open for signature by additional WB6 and EU neighbouring stakeholders which are willing and expected to assume a role in the market integration projects. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 27 April by: For the WB6 Transmission System Operators (TSOs): Operatori i Sistemit të Transmetimit (OST), Nezavisni operator sistema u Bosni i Hercegovini (NOS BiH), Transmission System Operator of Macedonia – Joint Stock Company for Electricity Transmission and Power System Control of Macedonia (AD MEPSO), Electric Transmission System of Montenegro (Crnogorski Elektroprenosni Sistem AD – CGES), JP Elektromreža Srbije (EMS), 1 Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia |