Serbia – long term cooperation

Grexel and the Serbian Issuing Body, EMS, have a long history together. The cooperation between the two companies started already in 2011, when Grexel assisted Serbia in preparing Guarantees of Origin prerequisites. This first project focused on increasing awareness of the Guarantees of Origin-system, implementing both GO and disclosure in the legislation and building the basic design for the IT system for managing them.

The old Serbian energy law from 2011 was not fully applicable and a new one was passed in 2014. Now it was time to take Guarantees of Origin into use. Serbia has always taken an active approach when it comes to international co-operation. They had in example participated in the AIB meeting in Split as an observer, even before the new legislation had come into force. Their interest in joining the AIB, as well as the active approach towards adopting the European Guarantees of Origin, led to the tendering process for finding an IT solution.

“We were very happy with Grexel’s genuine willingness to support us, which was already clear in the early stages of the process”, says Nikola Tosic, the Head of Market development and Administration Department of EMS.

Grexel participated in the tendering process. The next part of our story with Serbia started on 1.7.2016, when Grexel was awarded a three-year contract with EMS. As a part of the deployment process, several workshops and trainings were also organized.

The cooperation reached full-speed in the fall of 2017, when the secondary energy legislation was implemented. In the same year, the first version of Serbian domain protocol was shaped.

“Once the secondary legislation was in place, we were also able to apply for AIB membership. We appreciated the help we received from Grexel in the process – it was good to have a partner who was well familiar with the AIB processes. This helped us complete the AIB process and establish our HUB connection on 11.11.2020”, says Tosic.

“All in all, our customer experience has been extremely positive. Everything has gone well and whenever we needed support, our questions were answered quickly and in a solution-oriented way”, compliments Tosic.

“Grexel is very proud to serve EMS and Serbia. Electrical engineering has always been at a very high level and it enjoys high respect in Serbia. It feels good to contribute the same continuum that was started by Nikola Tesla’s groundbreaking scientific discoveries.”, says Marko Lehtovaara, CEO of Grexel.

Serbian transfer volumes have steadily increased over the past years. Currently roughly 30% of Serbian energy is produced with renewable energy sources, while GOs are applied only for 2% of the total production. This leaves room for growth in the transfer volumes. Nikola anticipates the gap will close in the near future, as the awareness on the Guarantees of Origin increases. Grexel will proudly continue to be a part of the Serbian market development.