The SEERMAP project focuses on two crucial policy areas in the electricity sector of the West Balkan region concerning its long term energy development and decarbonisation path.
One area is the potential of long term renewable deployment in the target countries. The other is infrastructure, with a focus on the necessary transmission network developments.
These areas will be examined in detail with the application of state of the art energy sector models of the participating consortia partners (electricity and gas sector market models of REKK, Renewable deployment model of TU Vienna and the regional electricity network model of EKC) in the timeframe of 2050. Various renewable and infrastructure scenarios will be tested, underpinned by consultation with local experts over the assumptions and for data validation. The central outcome of the model based scenario assessment is a long term energy roadmap for the six target countries, evaluating various pathways of decarbonisation.
Two target groups are identified as project beneficiaries and contributors. The first group consists of government representatives, regulators and the TSOs involved in the policy making in the energy sector. Although presently regulators in the region have less power than in the EU, they will gain more authority in the coming years, meaning more independence in regulating the energy sector. Regulators will play stronger role in determining network tariffs and RES monitoring in the future, thus taking a central position in the research areas of our project. The second group targets local think thanks, where quantitative assessment skills and cooperation will be supported in order to build up a cohesive regional network of energy research think tanks.
Two trainings will focus on regulatory issues, one on network tarification and the other on good practice in RES support policies. They will be organized for a mixed audience of regulators, TSOs and think tanks in two regional centres planned in association with ERRA.
A new element to compare with other regional projects is a macroeconomic assessment of the decarbonisation trajectories (by the consortium partner OG Research). As the target countries are highly indebted economies, special attention should be devoted to macroeconomic sustainability. We investigate the impact of different financing options to internal and external balances and debt trajectories.
Local involvement in the project will be significant; besides the local think tanks in each countries, EKC from Serbia will carry out the network modeling assessment, and regional policy makers, regulators, representatives of TSOs and researchers are expected to be involved in the planned trainings. The modeling assessment is enlarged with the three EU members from the SEE region – Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management of Austria (BMLFUW) and European Climate Foundation (ECF).
SEERMAP scenario workshop, Belgrade
SEERMAP Renewable Energy Training, Podgorica
SEERMAP Electricity Networks Training, Tirana
SEERMAP Renewable Energy Training, Sofia
SEERMAP Network Training, Athens
