The Council of the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia (AERS) has certified joint-stock company EMS as the electricity transmission system operator (TSO), allowing it to obtain a license to operate the transmission system. The issuance of the certificate followed the resolution of several issues with the Energy Community.
The main purpose of issuing of the certification is to confirm that TSO is independent of the its network users, or market stakeholder, such as electricity producers and traders, as well as mostly large buyers. EMS submitted a request for certification in October 2016, and the AERS issued a preliminary decision to issue the certificate in the beginning of 2017. The decision was submitted to the Energy Community for an opinion.
In June, the Energy Community Secretariat published its opinion on the matter, in which it considers that EMS can currently not be certified as envisaged by the Preliminary Decision of AERS. This is because EMS is currently not unbundled in line with the ownership unbundling model as required by Article 9 of the Electricity Directive and it is still controlled directly by the Government, the representative of state ownership in both EMS and power utility EPS, as well as in gas distributor Srbijagas.
Since one Ministry was in charge for both the EMS and power utility EPS, the Law on Ministries had to be change, which was done in late June. The competencies over public companies which produce or supply electricity were transferred from the Ministry of Economy to the Ministry of Mining and Energy. These competencies concern activities on the appointment of management bodies, as well as other acts relating to the operation of the companies.
In November 2016, EMS announced that the company now operates as a joint-stock company. The new name of the company is EMS AD. It will operate as a non-public joint-stock company with 100 % state ownership, without the possibility of purchase of shares by other legal entities or individuals. Director General of the company Nikola Petrovic said that the reasons for the transition of EMS in the form of non-public joint-stock company are, among others, the obligations undertaken by Serbia under the Stabilization and Association Agreement concluded with the EU.
