Brussels welcomes reconnection of SE Europe power grid

Brussels (Platts)--10Nov2004

The European Commission welcomed late Tuesday the reconnection this month of
the south-east Europe power grid to the European Union's. Most of the links
between the two UCTE zones were destroyed in the Balkan war in the 1990s.
"This reconnection comes at a propitious moment as the EU moves to
re-integrate south-east Europe into the mainstream European energy markets.
The aim is to create a single market established under the same regulatory
rules from Sweden to Turkey and from Bulgaria to Portugal," the EC said. The
Commission is negotiating a treaty between the EU and Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro
and Kosovo to create an integrated regional energy market along similar lines
to that of the EU. This treaty foresees market opening for all non-domestic
customers by June 2005.UCTE, the group coordinating power transmission across
Europe, started testing the links between the north-west and south-east
European zones on Oct 10, 2004. Cross border trading has been possible between
Hungary and Romania, Hungary and Serbia, Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro,
Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and west Ukraine and Romania since Nov 1, 2004.
But UCTE has advised grid operators to only offer up to 30% of their net
transfer capacity values--calculated by UCTE--for flows from the south-east
European zone to the north-western zone in November. This recommendation rises
to 60% in December and to 100% from Jan 1, 2005, as long as there are no
operational problems. There are no restrictions on flows from the
north-western zone to the south-eastern.

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