About Project

The project “Development of Serbia’s Energy Planning Capacity”, had an overall objective οf strengthening the strategic planning capacities of the Ministry of Mining and Energy (MoME) of the Republic of Serbia. During the 24 months of the project’s duration, the project has focused on the provision of the support in reforming Energy Policy by meeting the EU Acquis through the enhanced planning, performing a series of activities such as energy planning software design and implementation, development of the tool for project prioritization and preparation of the Annual Report on Implementation of Energy Strategy and Implementation Programme.

The project aimed to ensure that the Ministry of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia acquires an appropriate model for energy system analysis and projections, the appropriate tools for further analysis as well as strengthening its capacities for the preparation of strategic documents. 

Main activities

The project objectives have been implemented through the establishment of a Working Group, comprising members from MOME, EPS, EMS, SERBJAGAS, TRANSNAFTA, NIS and AERS , with meetings almost on a monthly basis for throughout project duration. The well-established duties of the WG were including the provision of energy sector data for all project activities and the analysis and approval of the project results. Lastly, an extensive capacity building programme was implemented focusing on theoretical and practical issues of energy planning, cost benefit and multicriteria analysis, including several training hours on relevant tools, as well as participation in international conferences and workshops. 

Main results

During the project implementation period, the project resulted in the following:

·         Design and implementation of a complex and detailed energy planning model -the Serbian Energy Model System (SEMS), based on the TIMES model generator, for the purpose of the deep analysis of the Serbian energy system.

·         Design and implementation of a prioritisation tool, based on the Cost Benefit Analysis and Multi-criteria Assessment approaches, enabling MoME and relevant stakeholders of the Serbian Energy Sector, to produce projects’ priority lists, per energy sector, interconnected with the SEMS scenario results for a more user-friendly comparison and further analysis.

·         Development of the 1^st Annual Report of the Energy Strategy and Implementation Program, based on a  guidance produced for that purpose.

·         Extensive training and capacity building programme for more than 40 trainees for all Serbian Energy Companies and the Ministry of Mining and Energy, enabled all participants to independently run SEMS and the prioritisation tool, as well as be familiar with EU Methodologies for Cost Benefit and Multicriteria Analysis.

Next Steps

The next steps should focus on the further development of energy planning capacities of MOME and the Serbian Energy Sector with supplementary tools to SEMS, in supporting MoME in its duties to prepare the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan, in line with Energy Community requirements.