Energy Community says it will call two tenders under WB6 electricity market

The Energy Community Secretariat has published service prior information notices regarding two upcoming tender procedures under WB6 electricity market integration initiative which are to be launched at the end of August or beginning of September 2017.

The tenders will be launched for technical assistance in the implementation of the Western Balkan six day-ahead market coupling (WB6 DA MI) Program, and for technical assistance to the implementation of cross-border electricity balancing, the statement said.

The first technical assistance will consist of providing project management support to the related governance bodies and expert support needed throughout different phases of the implementation of any individual market coupling project that will be defined in the WB6 DA MI roadmap for the implementation of regional market coupling.

The technical assistance for the implementation of cross-border electricity balancing will consist of providing expert support needed to develop a consistent and feasible roadmap for cross-border balancing cooperation in the WB6 region and its integration into the pan-European market.

The tender documents will be published on the website of the Energy Community and Wiener Zeitung, the official publication body of Austria. The launch of the tenders is intended for end August/beginning September 2017 and will follow an “open procedure” as defined by Austrian public procurement law.

The tenders are part of the project activities set out in the work program for the provision of technical assistance to Western Balkan 6 Contracting Parties under the project “Technical Assistance to Connectivity in the Western Balkans – Component 2: Regional Energy Market” funded by the European Union and implemented by the Energy Community Secretariat.

July 22, 2017

by AEA in News

WB6 electricity report: Slow progress in establishing day-ahead markets

The Western Balkan Six (WB6) countries have been progressing in developing their electricity markets at different pace, while the regional market is still to take shape, the Energy Community Secretariat assessed in its WB6 Electricity Monitoring Report.

Spot Market Development (status 07/2017)

The report was presented at the WB6 Summit in Trieste on July 12. It analyses progress made at national and regional level in the implementation of energy soft measures since last year’s Summit in Paris. Those measures were agreed in 2015 within the WB6 initiative which aims to enhance cooperation between the countries in the region. Since then, the Western Balkan countries have implemented more than half of the energy soft measures, the report says.

“To speed up the process, governments will have to adopt decisions that will remove the remaining blocking points, as well as to step up regional cooperation of both Western Balkan 6 parties and EU Member States towards an efficient integration of their day-ahead and balancing markets”, the report concludes.

SEEPEX only functional day-ahead market in region

Cross-border Balancing (status 07/2017)

Western Balkans countries have been still slowly progressing in establishing day-ahead markets and their coupling.

The report states that the power exchange SEEPEX in Serbia remains the only functional day-ahead market in the Western Balkan 6 although other countries have taken activities for starting a day-ahead market. Montenegro stands out in this regard with the establishment of the power exchange company in June 2017.

The report notes that countries have mainly opted for the establishment of national power exchanges in spite of the fact that their markets are small in size, rather than to look for adhering to existing power exchanges.

The Energy Community recommends to the countries to carefully consider financial viability of the future power exchanges and measures that will contribute to boosting their liquidity, including through an efficient market coupling process.

Further steps needed towards balancing cooperation

The Energy Community estimated that truly regional balancing cooperation has still not taken off in the Western Balkans. The countries in the region have been developing models for cross-border exchange of balancing energy, but the activities are limited to bilateral cooperation, or within control blocks, such as trilateral cooperation of transmission system operators of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia.

Serbia still not participate in regional capacity allocation

Regional Capacity Allocation (status 07/2017)

The progress in regional capacity allocation has also been slow. The only improvement is the inclusion of the cross-border capacities on the interconnection between Macedonia and Greece into the common regional auctioning performed by SEE CAO.

Serbia remains the only WB6 country that is not allocating any of its cross-border capacities through the regional auction office.

No initiative was taken towards Bulgaria’s membership of SEE CAO, for the purpose of allocation of capacities on the interconnection with Macedonia.

Progress achieved in unbundling

Cross-cutting Measures (status 07/2017)

The most prominent progress since the Paris Summit was made in the area of price deregulation and unbundling of system operators. In four of the Western Balkan 6 countries, the transmission system operators applied for certification. The process was finalized successfully in Albania, where the transmission system operator was certified and subsequently became a member of ENTSO-E.

The report reminds that Serbian transmission system operator had not fulfilled the unbundling requirements of the Third Package.

Overall Implementation of Soft Measures (status 07/2017)

Legal unbundling of the distribution system operator has still not been finalized in Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina while functional unbundling is not yet complete in Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

In Kosovo, price regulation was terminated for generation prices as well as the supply price for high voltage customers and the price for network losses.

For more information go to full report.