Renewable energy policy database and support

The procedure for the connection of a facility to the transmission power grid is governed by the provisions of the Energy Law (Art. 117 et seq), the Decree on the conditions of electricity delivery and supply and the Transmission Grid Code. The connection to the distribution grid is regulated correspondingly in the respective Distribution Grid Codes of the 5 Distribution System Operators (Elektrovojvodina d.o.o. (Novi Sad), Elektrodistribucija Beograd d.o.o., Elektrosrbija d.o.o. (Kraljevo), Jugoistok d.o.o. (Niš) and Centar d.o.o. (Kragujevac)).

1. Request for the issuance of connection approval:

The first step is the submission of the request for the issuance of the approval of connection, which has to be forwarded to the respective TSO/DSO (Art. 119 § 5 and Art. 140 Energy Law). According to Art. 3 § 5 Decree on Delivery and Supply of electrical energy the request needs to entail data on:

• Name of the owner
• Information on the facility (location, type)
• The power of the facility
• Estimated method of connection
• Point of time of the connection
• Safety requirements of the plant
• other information in accordance with the Grid Code

Moreover, the plant operator needs to put forward estimations concerning the capacity, monthly/yearly energy production and consumption of the plant (Art. 4 Decree on Delivery and Supply). Finally, the applicant should also add the construction permit and evidence of the ownership of the facility to the request (Art. 5 Decree on Delivery and Supply).

2. Decision on connection approval:

The relevant system operator gives his approval upon the connection request in form of a decision (Art. 120 or 142 Energy Law and Art. 3 Decree on Delivery and Supply). Pursuant to Art. 121 and 143 Energy Law the approval particularly contains:

• Connection point
• Method and technical requirements 
• Approved capacity of the facility
• Location
• Metering of the supplied energy
• Connection costs
• Deadline for the connection

More detailed technical requirements for the connection are also set out in the Distribution Grid Codes (see below) and Chapter 4 of the Transmission Grid Code (see also Art. 7 et seq. Decree on Delivery and Supply).

3. Contract on Connection:

Next, the applicant has to conclude a Connection Contract with the respective system operator (Art. 125 Energy Law).

4. Connection:

The system operator is obliged to carry out the connection, if the following conditions are fulfilled:

• the conditions from the connection approval are met
• use permit for the facility is on hand
• the customer delivered the sales contract to the system operator
• balance responsibility was arranged

There also exists the possibility of a temporary connection of facilities, which cannot last longer than 3 years (Art. 22 et seq. Decree on Delivery and Supply). The approval for a temporary connection is also regulated by the provisions for the general approval for connection (Art. 124 § 2 Energy Law).

TSO/DSO: The TSO has to decide on the application not later than 60 days after the receipt of the written request (Art. 120 § 4 Energy Law). The DSO decides within 45 days as of the date of receipt of the written request (Art. 142 § 2 Energy Law).

If the above mentioned criteria are met, the TSO is obliged to carry out the connection within 15 days after the conditions from Art. 123 § 1 Energy Law were fulfilled. The DSO connects the facility within 8 days after the fulfilment of the conditions (Art. 145 Energy Law).

System user: The applicant can appeal to the Energy Agency against the decision within 15 days after receipt (Art. 120 § 5 and Art. 145 § 3Energy Law).