Serbia’s transmission system operator Elektromreža Srbije (EMS) has signed a contract to expand and reconstruct the 220/35 kV Bajina Bašta substation into a 400/220/35 kV facility, with the works awarded to a consortium of Energotehnika Južna Bačka and Elnos after an international tender. The project also includes fitting out two 400 kV line bays at the Obrenovac substation, a step designed to connect the new double-circuit 400 kV transmission line now being built between the two sites.
The investment is one of the central pieces of the third section of the Trans-Balkan Electricity Corridor, the part of Serbia’s grid-modernisation programme that links works in Bajina Bašta and Obrenovac with a new 109-kilometre 400 kV line. In financial terms, that section carries a value of €113.5 million, with completion targeted for the end of 2028. Funding comes from a €64.5 million KfW loan, a €21 million grant from the Western Balkans Investment Framework, and EMS’s own resources.
What matters strategically is not only the civil and electrical scope of the contract, but the voltage shift behind it. EMS is effectively replacing part of the aging 220 kV backbone in western Serbia with a more modern 400 kV platform, raising transmission capacity, improving system reliability and preparing the network for a heavier mix of generation and cross-border flows. That matters as Serbia moves deeper into regional market coupling and faces rising pressure to absorb more renewable capacity without undermining grid stability.
The Bajina Bašta works are also closely tied to future system flexibility. EMS has said the upgrade will help create the technical conditions needed for integrating new production assets, including the planned Bistrica pumped-storage hydropower plant, a project widely seen as one of the most important balancing assets in Serbia’s medium-term power strategy. In practical terms, that gives the substation upgrade a larger role than a standard network refurbishment: it becomes part of the architecture required for dispatch flexibility, reserve support and stronger westward transmission capability.
More broadly, the contract underlines how the Trans-Balkan Corridor, with a total value of around €221 million, is reshaping Serbia’s role inside the south-east European electricity map. Earlier sections connected Pančevo 2 to the Romanian border and Kragujevac to Kraljevo, while later stages are expected to extend from Bajina Bašta toward Višegrad and Pljevlja, further increasing cross-border transfer capacity toward Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. That is the bigger logic behind the project: not just reinforcing one substation, but steadily positioning Serbia as a higher-capacity regional transmission hub between eastern and western power markets.
