The launch of Serbia's planned SEEPEX day-ahead power exchange is expected by the end of the third quarter this year, the director of state-owned power grid operator Elektromreze Srbije (EMS), Nikola Petrovic, said.
In March 2014, Petrovic said Paris-based Epex Spot, an exchange for power spot trading in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland, will have a 25% share in SEEPEX with EMS holding the remainder.
Once Serbia’s new energy bill is adopted, the power exchange will be launched, Petrovic told SeeNews on the sidelines of a recent economic forum in the Kopaonik ski resort.
Talking about investments this year, Petrovic said that the most important projects that the company is working on at the moment are the Belgrade 20 transformer station and the dual 400 kV Pancevo-Resice overhead transmission line.
The Belgrade 20 transformer station, worth 45 million euro ($48.4 million), is almost complete and is only waiting for the access transmission lines to be completed, Petrovic said.
The project should be completed by the middle of the year or early in the third quarter at the latest, the official said.
The construction of the Pancevo-Resice transmission line, part of a trans-Balkan power corridor, should start this year.
The project, worth around 27 million euro, is part of a push to develop Serbia into an energy hub for both north-to-south and east-to-west power flows in the region.
EMS' consolidated net profit rose 3.4% to 1.54 billion dinars ($13.58 million/12.76 million euro) in 2013 with its consolidated operating revenues jumping 22.9% to 19.79 billion dinars.
The company, which invested over 45 million euro in 2013, operates a power transmission network totaling 9,300 km.