Serbia to Invest 14.4 Billion Euros in Energy by 2035

By 2035, 14.4 billion euros (about 1.69 trillion dinars at the average exchange rate) will be invested in Serbia’s energy sector, Deputy Minister of Mining and Energy Rados Popadic announced. The figure was presented on September 9 at the “Energy as a Pillar of Growth, System Stability and Economic Competitiveness” conference at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia in Belgrade, marking the first time a single total figure has been given for the entire sector rather than for an individual project.

The conference was organized by Wireless Media Group and Mondo INC, with Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, and the Enterprise Europe Network taking part as partners. The first panel, “Serbia’s Energy System 2026 to 2040: Strategic Framework, Investments and Stability,” was moderated by RTS journalist Ruzica Vranjkovic, with Popadic, EPS general director Dusan Zivkovic, and Jasmina Radovanovic, NALED’s lead advisor for property and investment, taking part. The second panel was titled “The Future of the Energy Sector: Technology and People.”

What Makes Up the 14.4 Billion Euros

Popadic explained where most of the money is coming from and what it is meant for:

By 2035, 14.4 billion euros will be invested, and most of those funds will go into energy. It is natural for the funds to be directed toward new production capacities, such as RHE Bistrica, by which we primarily mean building reserve sources and energy storage systems. Preparatory work on these projects is starting already this fall, while the main works are expected during the coming year.

The key projects named include the Bistrica reversible hydropower plant, the Kostolac B3 thermal unit, the modernized Bajina Basta reversible hydropower plant, and the Trans-Balkan transmission corridor, which will add new connections to Italy and Hungary along with a corridor around Belgrade for transmitting power from Banat. Popadic also announced the digitalization and renovation of conventional hydropower plants, including the Djerdap system, along with continued coal production and the opening of new coal fields until new capacities come online.

EPS Holds 80 Percent of the Market, Old Plant Sites Await New Uses

Zivkovic said EPS effectively holds a monopoly on production, but that the company is changing under pressure from the open market:

EPS is unmistakably adapting to the new situation through rapid change. Although we hold about 80% of production in Serbia, we have to look at our business entirely from the perspective of an active participant in an open market, while keeping our obligation for commercial and guaranteed supply safe and reliable.

The company has published a public call for renewable energy projects, solar parks, wind and biomass, with mandatory battery storage included. Zivkovic also announced a new purpose for the sites of old power plants:

Our interest in this process is twofold. On one hand, we want to secure the development of renewable energy projects, and on the other, EPS has its own sites that need a new lease on life. I am primarily referring to old power plant sites that will be moved into reserve or shut down, where biomass plants or other clean energy sources could be built.

On the RHE Bistrica project, Zivkovic said, preparatory work began in February, and 265 requests have been submitted to the relevant institutions so far. The numbers do not match here: the Ministry of Mining and Energy said a day earlier, on September 8, that the figure was 245 requests. Signing the contract with Japanese partners for Bistrica, Zivkovic says, is expected in the second quarter of 2027. For comparison, we previously wrote about the project itself when the preliminary design for a 660 megawatt reversible hydropower plant was adopted, so the current announcement marks the first time the project has been placed in the context of total investment in the sector, rather than viewed on its own.

What NALED Says About the Procedures

Radovanovic warned, from the business perspective, that complex procedures spanning multiple institutions burden companies investing in energy, and that developing large energy projects costs millions of euros already at the initial stage, before the investment even begins. She added that local governments cannot be bypassed in the transition process, as they already have their own ideas for investing in building energy efficiency and electric vehicle infrastructure.

Popadic said the legal framework for the electricity sector and market is 99 percent complete, and that what remains is regulating citizen energy communities to enable wider installation of solar panels on buildings. The panel also raised a warning, in connection with the future of coal and the thermal sector, that the CBAM carbon tax threatens the competitiveness of electricity exports from the entire region to the European market. That assessment was presented as a general conclusion of the panel following Zivkovic’s remarks on the role of coal in the transition, not as a position stated by Radovanovic.

Can Serbia Survive Without Market Coupling?

At the second panel, SEEPEX technical director Dejan Stojcevski explained the difference between system security and energy security, saying that security of supply primarily depends on money rather than a physical shortage of energy, since electricity can be bought at any moment. Asked whether Serbia can function independently of formally coupling its market with the European Union, he replied:

Will we survive without market coupling? We will, just as we are doing now, because our bilateral market is well developed, and we have had exchange systems before as well.

Nikola Rajakovic, a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, said the period until 2030 is decisive, since it will determine the total cost of Serbia’s energy transition, and that carbon tax costs will rise if the transition slows down. Ljubinko Savic of the Association for Energy and Mining at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia said many small and medium enterprises cannot even read their electricity bills, let alone distinguish between active and reactive energy, while Radomir Milovanovic of UNDP Serbia said technologies for diversifying energy sources are available in Serbia, can be procured or developed, and that digital transformation focused on capacity is key, with the potential of biomethane still underused.

The next check on the 14.4 billion euro announcement will come when the outcome of EPS’s public call for renewable sources is published, and when, in the second quarter of 2027, it becomes clear whether the contract with Japanese partners for RHE Bistrica was actually signed within the announced deadline.