Prosumer – a significant novelty in the field of energy

27.06.2022.

In 2021 legal framework that regulates the status of the prosumer was adopted and such framework includes the Law on Energy, the Law on the Use of Renewable Energy Sources, the Decree on Criteria, Conditions, and Manner of Calculating Claims and Obligations between Prosumers and Suppliers and several rulebooks. Prosumer as a term has become familiar in practice and comes from the combined words of the English language “producer” and “consumer”.

The prosumer is actually the end-buyer of electricity who has the right to build a production facility and to produce electricity for their own needs, to store it and to sell the excess electricity, i.e. to deliver it to the transmission system, distribution system, or closed distribution system.

The relevant regulations require obtaining an act of the competent authority depending on the capacity of the production facility. Thus, for a production facility with an installed capacity of up to 50 kW for the production of energy from solar energy for the needs of the end buyer who acquires the status of prosumer, it is not necessary to obtain an act of the competent authority. For a production facility with an installed capacity of over 50 kW, the investor must obtain approval for the execution of works.

The manner of calculation of claims and obligations between the prosumer and electricity supplier depends on the category of the end buyer who became the prosumer. If the prosumer is a household or housing community, or one or more members of the assembly of the housing community, the supplier is obliged to calculate the claim through net calculation and to settle obligations with the prosumer pursuant to a contract for complete supply with net calculation. If the prosumer is not a household or a housing community, the supplier and prosumer freely negotiate the conditions of calculation of mutual claims and obligations through net settlement. It is important to note that in the case of connection of a production facility with approved power of 10.8 kW or less, and where the end buyer is not a household or housing community, no decision is required by the system operator and no contract for connection service is concluded.

Public company “Elektroprivreda Srbije”, one of the suppliers of the electricity market in the Republic of Serbia, has published on its website draft contracts which are concluded with the end buyer, as well as the procedure for obtaining the prosumer status.

https://www.eps.rs/cir/snabdevanje/Pages/kupac-proizvodjac.aspx

In order for the end buyer to acquire the prosumer status, depending on the category, it is necessary to, inter alia:

1. build a production facility with an installed capacity not exceeding the existing approved connection capacity;
2. adjust the measuring point for acquiring the prosumer status;
3. submit a request for concluding a contract on complete supply with net calculation (if the end buyer is a household) or with net settlement (if the end buyer is not a household or a housing community)[1];
4. conclude a contract with the supplier on the complete supply of electricity with net calculation or net settlement;
5. start the procedure of connecting the production facility with the system operator[2];
6. if a certain production facility is in compliance with the technical conditions, regulations and standards, the system operator shall issue an act on connection, connect the production facility to the distribution system and register it in the prosumer registry;

The end buyer acquires the prosumer status by registration in the prosumer registry, which is performed by the system operator, after fulfilling all the necessary conditions.

Based on the registry published on the website http://www.elektrodistribucija.rs/, currently, only solar power production facilities are registered – 51 households and 6 production facilities that are not households or housing communities, while the register of housing communities still has no registered prosumers as housing communities.

Bearing in mind that the institute of the prosumer is new in our legal framework, many questions remain open and the answers to which will be reached over time and by the practice of all participants in the energy market.

[1] The addendum to such request is the notification on adjustment of the measuring point issued by the distributive system operator

[2] In the procedure of connection of the production facility, the end buyer is obliged to submit to the system operator the original statements of the contractor with the confirmation of the responsible contractor that the devices, installations and measuring point are correct and performed in accordance with regulations and standards