With the license to trade in the territory of the European Union, EPS will become a serious player in the open market. EPS SLovenia the company “EPS Trgovanje”, with the Head office in Ljubljana, will not be dealing with retail trade, i.e. it will not supply end consumers with electricity in Slovenia. EPS has quite sufficient number of customers at all voltage levels in Serbia. “EPS Trgovanje” will be dealing with large-scale electricity trade, where there is a 100% charge and possibility to profit by sales indisputable.
In order to do business in that way, with such a sale having an issue, or a risk of charging the supplied kilowatt hours, it does not need to leave the borders of national electricity system. “EPS Trgovanje” will be dealing with large-scale electricity trade, where there is a 100% charge and possibility to profit by sales indisputable.
The goal is to do business in the territory of the EU and regions of Southeastern Europe and to take advantage of the developed market, especially for EPS to become a legitimate player in the electricity stock exchange in Budapest and Slovenia. With this explanation, the JP EPS Supervisory Board has rendered a Decision in late January on formation of the “EPS Trgovanje” in Slovenia.
Waiting for the consent
The Decision of the Supervisory Board will come into effect after the Government of the Republic of Serbia gives the approval thereon, which is in accordance with the Law on public enterprises and rights and obligations of the founder. Only after that, a new company registration operational activities take place in Slovenia, and also some concrete preparations for the start of business. At the very session of the Supervisory Board, it was explained that “EPS Trgovanje” would not have permanently employed workers in Slovenia. All activities will be performed from Belgrade, where the JP EPS head office is and where the Department of EPS for electricity trade is located, performing its electricity trade successfully since it was formed in 2006. This winter, obviously ending already, JP EPS has for the first time made a positive balance out of transactions of procurements and sales of electricity, thus making significant profit. The winter was mild, but the synchronization of business moves in operation management of production facilities, being a part of energy system of Serbia, and risks in the open market when selling electricity was good as well. Operating EPS company in Ljubljana from Belgrade is enabled by modern information technologies used by all the participants of stock exchange business. This practice is applied by many electricity traders licensed in Serbia, as well as electric power national companies in neighboring countries. Many of those companies have ten some branch offices in many countries, although not their own production of electricity, as JP EPS does. Majority is almost exclusively in the business of trading. Some of them in Belgrade have only their legal representatives, and those who know more say they are doing fine.
As far as “EPS Trgovanje” is concerned, to the future new dependent companies of EPS for electricity trade, it is not the question how it will operate from Belgrade at the current level of IT communication and to be identified in Ljubljana, but why Slovenia was chosen over Hungary if the aim is Budapest stock exchange. In the EPS Department for electricity trade say that after many analyzing and consideration Slovenia was chosen, because the costs of formation of the company and running the company are the lowest in the region and significantly lower than in Hungary. Thus, the solution “Ljubljana via Budapest“ was found to be the most rational.
It is about competition, not the Law
The fact that JP EPS forms a new company in the territory of the EU represents a special favorable circumstance for acquiring knowledge and experience in the operation of the developed electricity market, especially stock exchange, but also for the strengthening the company as entirety. It will be a good preparation for the time when Serbia enters the EU. According to the statement from the Department for electricity trade, this has nothing to do with the national Law on public procurement and alleged evasion of public announcement of purchase, since this Law excludes electricity purchase from such an obligation, in order to proceed with further sales in the market.
The EPS Department also emphasizes that company for electricity trade dislocated from Serbia will enable EPS not only to access the EU, but also to start following its own competition at home. There is an opinion that until “EPS Trgovanje” starts working, in the open market in Serbia traders will be ahead of EPS due to the fact that their business is not limited by this country. In the previous practice, for that reason, whenever it had surplus of energy to place on the market, that extra energy was bought by the traders licensed in Belgrade, because EPS was not able to get out of the borders of Serbia to place the energy due to the fact it does not have license for doing business in other countries nor for stock-exchange trading. And, electricity stock-exchange in Belgrade does not exist. So, the traders have earned a lot of money by reselling EPS electricity.
With head office in Slovenia, the EU member, “EPS Trgovanje“ will have Slovenia’s license and an open door to doing business in all the countries of the EU. It will obtain a license for entering stock-exchange in Budapest, and afterwards in Slovenia. In that way only, it will become a serious player in the open market in Serbia. Naturally, the approval of the Government of Serbia should be waited on. In the meantime, it could be suited to find out why the idea of opening not only one, but at least three trading branch offices of EPS in some of the main centers in the region, which saw the light seven years ago, was kept secret for so long.
Source; Serbia Energy