RES Serbia 2025: Around 18 GW projects in the process of connection in our country

Renewable energy sources (RES) are the main driver of economic progress in many countries around the world. That our country is also keeping pace with the world was confirmed at the RES Serbia 2025 Conference in Vrdnik, whose media sponsor was the eKapija portal.

There are currently around 18,000 MW of projects in Serbia in various stages of connection, of which 6,000 MW are in distribution.

There are 6 gigawatts of demand in Montenegro, which is ten times more than Montenegro consumes at peak times, is the conclusion of a panel dedicated to transmission and distribution systems held at the RES SERBIA 2025 conference.

Nebojsa Vucinic, Director of the Development Directorate of Elektromreza Srbije, pointed out that, the year before, they had had a surge in the preparation of connection studies, but that subsequently the number of requests had decreased.

– It’s not just about the number of requests, that’s the least important thing. From the system point of view, megawatts are the most important. Currently, we have about 18,000 MW in the connection process in various stages, 6,000 MW in distribution plus transmission – Vucinic emphasized.

10 requests for independent battery storage, 2 for data centers

He added that the data center industry was opening up and that EMS had 2 requests for these centers - one of 650 MW and the other of 100 MW. At the moment, 2,000 MW in batteries is in the connection process, which is 6 gigawatt-hours in power.

10 requests for independent battery storage are also in processing, it was stated at the RES SERBIA 2025 conference.

– These are 10 facilities of 1,000 MW in total. We are preparing connection studies that will be finalized at the end of the year, after which we hope that they will submit bank guarantees. Storage facilities can play a significant role in the balancing process, perhaps even greater than pumped-storage hydropower plants – said Vucinic.

He noted that EMS was working on capital projects to strengthen the system.

– A few months ago, we marked the beginning of the construction of the third section of the Trans-Balkan Corridor, which is a capital project. It should be operational by the end of 2027. The second capital project is Beogrid, for which we laid the foundation stone near Dobanovci 10 days ago. Also, the delivery of a variable shunt reactor to Vranje is underway, since in Vranje we have the biggest problem with voltage conditions – Vucinic emphasized.

6 GW of demand in the distribution system

Dalibor Nikolic, Director of the Technical System at Elektrodistribucija Srbije, stated that there were 2,400 active requests in the distribution system, which collectively had 6.1 GW, which was well above the maximum peak that the distribution system could achieve, in his assessment.

– We started euphorically, liberally, and this led to serious congestion. We have a lot of projects that have started and have taken up space in the distribution system and we have to wait for time to pass for the space to be freed up. Analyses show that only 400 power plants are on the system. Of the submitted requests, less than 20% are feasible and realistic. The key moment came at the end of 2024, with the entry into force of amendments to the Energy Law, the rules of the game were introduced, and connection permits can only be extended once – Nikolic emphasized.

There is also a large number of requests in Montenegro, 6 GW, revealed Aleksandar Mijuskovic, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Montenegrin Electric Transmission System.

– We have 6 gigawatts of demand, and in Montenegro the maximum peak is 600 MW. We already have 10 times more demand than we consume at peak, we are facing the problem of how to connect everything – said Mijuskovic, adding that one of the most important projects, the Lastva-Pljevlja transmission line, would be completed by the end of the year, where only a few poles remained to be completed.

The RES SERBIA 2025 conference was organized for the fifth time by the Association of Renewable Energy Sources of Serbia.

Obnovljivi izvori energije Srbije

EMS ad Beograd

Elektrodistribucija Srbije d.o.o. Beograd

Crnogorski elektroprenosni sistem ad Podgorica

Development Directorate of Elektromreza Srbije

Nebojša Vučinić

Dalibor Nikolić

Aleksandar Mijušković

energy

renewable energy sources