At the beginning of 2015, the electricity market in BiH will be opened for all customers, including households, which means that each consumer will have possibility to buy electricity on the market, if finds better offer from the previous one.
However, in order that customers could actually do that, market processes and the relationships between all participants in the market must be established and clearly defined that customers could understand them.
The aim of the recent campaigns is that also decision makers in our country become conversant with how far we have come in fulfilling the conditions for the electricity market opening the and what are the steps that need to be done to create all conditions for the opening on 1st January 2015, said project director Assisting regulation of the energy sector in BiH Ognjen Markovic.
He reiterated the need to create all conditions in order that all consumers, including households, could choose their supplier by 2015.
The market principle is such that any company that sells electricity should be registered in BiH, but it can have its headquarters anywhere in the world as it is the case with the company from Ljubljana, which partly supplies the “Aluminium” Mostar.
Asked to what extent the domestic electro distributions were competitors in the international market, Markovic said that two of the three power utilities in BiH were electricity exporters. It is the “Power Utility Company of Republika Srpska” and “BiH Power Utility Company”, which, according to Markovic, were competitive in the regional electricity market.
When the market for all customers in BiH would be opened to them will also be given the opportunity to be more competitive with their services in the market.
When in 2007 began with work, USAID REAP has also organized a conference on the market opening where he presented his goals and objectives and where was made the status section of the electro energetic sector. Therefore, in this final conference the USAID REAP will review the actions taken during the 6 years of the project, and thus will present the progress that has been achieved in the electricity sector during that period.
International experts led by USAID REAP by this project will present recommendations for further improvement of the electricity market modeled on international best practice.
According to Tomas Rojas from USAID, in the two days conference will be presented all the elements in which has been made progress in the electro energetic sector in the past six years in Bosnia.
As a reminder, until now the U.S. government, primarily through USAID, has provided 1.6 billion dollars to help the economic, democratic and social progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and according Rojas, USAID is very pleased with the consumption of these resources.
– We are very pleased with the progress that has been made in power sector, where we will continue to invest, and we already have negotiations about a very specific, related project – said Rojas.
The conference was attended by representatives of ministries responsible for energy at the state and entity level, representatives of the parliamentary committee responsible for energy, as well as representatives of all participants in the electricity market, including regulatory commission for electricity on the state and entity level, who are also the sponsors of the conference, four power utility companies, independent system operator (ISO), and “Electroprenos” and representatives of regulatory commissions from Serbia and Montenegro and electricity traders who will present their countries’ experiences in the market opening process at the conference.
Special reference to the current state in the regional and BiH power sector at the conference will be given to the representative of the Energy Community of South East Europe.
Source; Serbia Energy See desk/USAID Bosnia
