The Serbia Center Party (SRCE) recently proposed abolishing the incentive fee for privileged electricity producers included in citizens’ bills, arguing that this burden should no longer fall on Serbian consumers since the Electric Power Company of Serbia (EPS) allegedly does not benefit. SRCE also questioned the opaque process by which certain individuals and companies—claimed to be connected to high-level government figures—receive privileged producer status.
However, energy experts and stakeholders argue that the incentive fee, introduced in 2009, is essential for encouraging investments in renewable energy sources (RES), reducing Serbia’s coal dependence, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and fostering domestic green industry and jobs. This kind of support exists worldwide, including in the US and EU.
Energy consultant Dejan Stojadinović explained that until 2019, incentives were granted via feed-in tariffs, and since 2023, through auction-based market premiums. These incentives are crucial for financing the energy transition and are transparently tracked by EPS, which last year paid 26.5 billion dinars to privileged producers. He emphasized that the incentive system’s data is publicly available, and beneficiaries range from private citizens to companies and schools.
Meanwhile, consumer advocate Nenad Bumbić said the core issue is not the fee itself but how the collected funds are distributed. While supporting RES development, he criticized the system for favoring politically connected large investors who build big solar, wind, and hydro projects, leaving ordinary citizens with little opportunity to benefit. He highlighted the hurdles ordinary people face in obtaining privileged producer status due to costly permits and bureaucratic uncertainty, discouraging wider participation in renewable energy production.
Bumbić pointed to examples abroad, like the US, where homeowners can install solar panels and sell excess energy back to the grid, a model not accessible in Serbia. He concluded that while incentives for renewable energy are necessary, reforms are needed to ensure fair access and prevent the system from disproportionately benefiting a privileged few.
