Legal Acts in English

This Law shall regulate the conditions and method of efficient use of energy and energy-related products (hereinafter referred to as: energy); the policy of efficient use of energy; the energy management system; the energy efficiency policy measures: the energy use in buildings, in energy activities and of the final customers, for energy facilities and energy services; energy labelling and eco-design requirements; financing, incentive and other measures in this field; establishing and the tasks of the Energy Efficiency Financing and Promotion Administration (hereinafter referred to as: Administration), as well as other issues of significance for the rights and obligations of natural and legal persons relating to efficient use of energy.

The objective of this Law shall be to create conditions for efficient use of energy and promotion of energy efficiency, which shall contribute to:

1) achievement of energy savings;

2) security of energy supply;

3) reduction of impacts of the energy sector on the environment and climate change;

4) sustainable use of natural and other resources;

5) improvement of economic competitiveness;

6) improvement of conditions for economic development;

7) reduction of energy poverty.

The terms used in this Law shall have the following meanings:

1) aggregator shall mean a provider of the service provided by a natural or legal person with the aim of aggregating the consumption of a larger number of final customers or prosumers and the electricity generated by the producers and prosumers, for the purpose of sale, purchase or participation in any electricity market;

2) auction shall mean the bidding procedure within which the right to market premium can be acquired;

3) high-efficiency cogeneration shall mean the cogeneration the production from which ensures primary energy savings compared to the reference values for separate production of heat and electricity for a pre-set percentage, calculated in accordance with the Methodology for determining efficiency of a cogeneration procedure, as well as the production from small scale and micro cogeneration units;

4) annual report on achievement of energy savings objectives (hereinafter referred to as: the Annual Report) shall mean the report provided by the obligated parties of the energy management system report to inform the Ministry in charge of energy of the measures and activities implemented and of the achievement level of the objectives defined by the energy efficiency program and plan;

5) heat cost allocator shall mean the device installed on all the radiators in a part of a building used to determine the share of an individual part of the building in the costs of delivered heat;

6) building section shall mean a usable unit within a building (a wing, block, floor, apartment, business premises or equivalent) which has been envisaged or altered to be used separately;

7) distribution of heat shall mean transmission of thermal energy by a heat distribution network i.e. by the boiling water, hot water, steam network and/or cooling fluid distribution network, from the calculation metering point of the heat producer to the calculation metering point of the customer;

8) eco-design shall mean the integration of environmental aspects into design and construction of an energy-related product, with the aim of improving the environmental performance of the product throughout its whole life cycle;

9) energy efficiency study for energy facilities shall mean the study in which documented calculations, i.e. assessments are made, based on the prescribed methods, of the energy efficiency levels of energy facilities;

10) energy efficiency shall mean the ratio of the achieved output of services, goods or energy, to input of energy;

11) energy label shall mean a graphic diagram, either in printed or electronic form, including a closed scale using letters of the Latin script from "A" to "G", each letter representing a class and each class corresponding to energy savings, presented in seven different colours, from dark green to red, in order to inform the product customers about energy efficiency and energy consumption; it includes rescaled labels and labels with fewer classes and colours in accordance with this Law;

12) energy refurbishment of building shall mean carrying out of construction and other works on an existing building, as well as repairs or replacement of devices, plants, equipment and installations of the same or smaller capacity, which are not impacting stability or safety of the facility, where structural elements are not changed, safety of the contiguous facilities or traffic is not impacted, fire protection and protection of the environment is not impacted, but whereby the outward appearance may be changed subject to the necessary consents, with the aim of improving the energy efficiency of the building, and/or reducing consumption of all energy types by applying the technical measures and standards on the existing elements of the building, devices, installations and equipment;

13) energy service shall mean the service providing material or other benefit, and/or goods derived from a combination of application of energy efficient technologies or actions, which may include the operations, maintenance, management and control necessary to deliver the service, which is delivered on the basis of a contract and under normal circumstances results in verifiable, measurable and/or estimable energy efficiency improvement or primary energy savings;

14) energy manager shall mean the natural person holding the energy manager's licence, appointed by the obligated party of the energy management system to monitor and record the methods of use and amounts of energy used, to propose energy efficiency measures and to perform other tasks laid down by this Law;

15) energy audit shall mean the systematic procedure with the purpose of obtaining adequate data and knowledge of the existing level, method and breakdown of energy consumption of a facility, production process, a private or public service, identifying and quantifying economically cost-effective energy efficiency measures and reporting on energy audit;

16) energy advisor shall mean the natural person holding the energy advisor's licence and conducting energy audits in compliance with the provisions of this Law and regulations passed based on this Law;

17) energy poverty within the meaning of this Law shall be the result of a combination of low household income, high consumption of the available income on energy and insufficient energy efficiency;

18) energy shall mean electricity, heat and energy products which shall include: coal, natural gas, oil, petroleum products (unleaded motor gasolines, aviation gasolines, jet fuels, gas oils, fuels oils, liquefied petroleum gas, etc.), oil shales, renewable and other sources of energy;

19) efficient energy supply within the meaning of this Law shall mean delivery of heat and/or electricity performed by the energy service provider to the energy service user on the basis of a contract on efficient energy supply;

20) efficient energy use shall mean the use of energy for quality performance of relevant activities and provision of services in such a manner as to achieve minimum energy consumption, within the technical possibilities of the modern installations, equipment and devices;

21) feed-in tariff shall mean the type of operational state aid granted in the form of incentive purchase price guaranteed per kWh for the supplied electricity fed into the electrical energy system during the incentive period;

22) guarantee of origin shall mean the electronic document having the sole function of demonstrating to the final customer that a certain amount of electricity has been produced from high-efficiency cogeneration;

23) representative shall mean the legal person or entrepreneur registered in the Republic of Serbia, holding a written mandate from the producer to act on his behalf in relation to placing of products on the market of the Republic of Serbia;

24) building within the meaning of this Law shall mean a structure having the floor, roof and exterior walls, constructed as an independent usable unit in which energy is used to achieve conditioning of the indoor climate, which is intended for dwelling, performance of an activity or for housing and keeping of animals, goods, equipment for various production and service activities, etc.;

25) central government buildings shall mean administrative buildings owned by the Republic of Serbia and occupied by the authorities and organisations whose competence extends over the entire territory of the Republic of Serbia;

26) energy audit report shall mean the report prepared following a completed energy audit by the energy advisor in compliance with the provisions of this Law and regulations passed based on this Law;

27) ISEM shall mean the information system for monitoring and analysing of energy and water consumption in public facilities, used for the needs of the energy management system and managed by the Ministry in charge of energy-related tasks;

28) placing of a product on the market shall mean each making available of an energy-related product on the market of the Republic of Serbia, with a view to its distribution, consumption or use, within an economic activity, whether for reward or free of charge;

29) product supplier shall mean the manufacturer or his representative or importer which is placing an energy-related product on the market of the Republic of Serbia;

30) a public building shall mean a state-owned building;

31) beneficiaries of public means shall mean the direct and indirect beneficiaries of budget means, the beneficiaries of means of the organisations for mandatory social insurance and public enterprises established by the Republic of Serbia and/or by the local government, legal persons founded by these public enterprises, legal persons in which the Republic of Serbia and/or the local government has direct or indirect control of more than 50% of equity or more than 50% votes in the management board, other legal persons in which public means make up more than 50% of the total revenues earned in the previous business year, as well as the public agencies and organisations to which regulations on public agencies apply;

32) cogeneration unit shall mean the production unit that is able to operate in cogeneration mode;

33) combined thermal and electrical energy generation (cogeneration) shall mean the simultaneous generation in one process of thermal energy and electrical or mechanical energy;

34) boiler shall mean the device comprising of a burner unit and a boiler body, in which a fluid is heated by the energy released in the combustion process;

35) final customer shall mean a natural or legal person or an entrepreneur that purchases energy for own needs;

36) product buyer shall mean a natural or legal person or an entrepreneur, which buys, hires or keeps a product for own use whether or not acting for purposes which are outside its business, trade, craft or profession;

37) prosumer shall mean a legal or natural person or an entrepreneur, a final electricity consumer that fulfils a part of his own needs for electricity from own electricity generation and uses the distribution network to feed the surplus electricity generated and to withdraw electricity when his own generation is not sufficient to meet own needs;

38) product information sheet shall mean a standard document containing information relating to a product, in printed or electronic form;

39) local energy community shall mean a legal entity which is based on voluntary and open participation and which is under effective control of the community members or shareholders which are natural person, local governments, including municipalities or small enterprises, the basic activity of which is provision of economic, environmental or social benefits for their members or for the local areas where they operate, and not making financial profit, and which may engage in generation of electricity, including that from renewable sources, in distribution, supply, consumption, aggregation, provision of the service of electricity storage, energy efficiency or charging services for electrical vehicles or in the provision of other energy services to their members or shareholders;

40) energy efficiency measures shall mean the actions that lead to verifiable, and measurable or estimable, energy efficiency improvements and are undertaken as a result of an energy efficiency policy measure; an energy efficiency measure shall also be considered to be generation of electrical and/or thermal energy by using renewable sources of energy, providing that the generated electrical and/or thermal energy is used on the generation site;

41) energy efficiency policy measures shall mean the regulatory, financial, fiscal or information provision instruments which are established by the authorities and other bodies, as well as other public services in order to create a supportive or incentive framework for market actors to provide and purchase energy services and to undertake other energy efficiency measures;

42) MVP (monitoring and verification platform) shall mean the information system for monitoring and verification of achieved savings in final energy, which is managed by the Ministry in charge of energy-related tasks;

43) small-scale cogeneration shall mean the power plant of the maximum capacity of more than 50 kWe and below 500 kWe, which may have one or more cogeneration units and achieves saving in primary energy compared against the reference values for the separate generation of thermal and electrical energy;

44) micro-cogeneration unit shall mean the cogeneration unit with a maximum capacity below 50 kWe, the generation of which ensures primary energy savings compared against the reference values for separate generation of thermal and electrical energy; a micro-cogeneration unit may have the legal status of a prosumer as regulated by the law governing the renewable sources of energy;

45) a model shall mean a version of a product of which all units share the same technical characteristics relevant for the energy efficiency label and the product information sheet, as well as the same model identifier;

46) an intelligent metering system (smart metering system) shall mean an electronic system for measuring energy flow, enabling metering and registration of more energy consumption parameters than the conventional metering devices, in the actual time period of the supply;

47) an intelligent metering device (smart metering device) shall mean the electronic system for measuring energy flow enabling metering and registration of more energy consumption parameters than the conventional metering devices, in the actual time period of the supply;

48) net final energy consumption shall mean the total final energy supplied for energy purposes to industry, transport, households, public and commercial activities, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, excluding own consumption of electrical and thermal energy in the electrical and thermal energy generation sector and the losses of electrical and thermal energy in transmission and distribution;

49) a facility shall mean a building connected to the ground, constructed of purposefully connected construction products, and/or construction works, representing a physical, functional, technically and technologically or a biotechnical whole (buildings and engineering facilities, etc.), which may be underground or above ground;

50) demand response shall mean the final customer's change in electricity consumption: as a response to market signals, including the change of electricity price, or as a result of the acceptance of offer by the final customer to sell the reduction or increase in consumption of electrical energy at the market price;

51) energy efficiency plan shall mean the planning document comprising measures and activities whereby an obligated party of the energy management system plans to implement the energy efficiency program;

52) energy efficiency improvement shall mean the reduction in energy consumption for the same scope and quality of production activities performed and services rendered, or the increase in the scope and quality of production activities performed and services rendered with the same consumption of energy, which is achieved by applying the measures of efficient energy use (technological changes, behaviour of energy users and/or economic changes);

53) a privileged electricity producer shall mean a legal person or an entrepreneur that is generating electricity from high-efficiency cogeneration and that is granted the right to feed-in tariff and/or market premium in compliance with this Law;

54) sanitary hot water shall mean the water from the water supply network heated by the heat from the district heating system, intended for consumption by the final customers;

55) primary energy consumption shall mean the total consumption of energy, excluding the consumption for non-energy purposes;

56) a temporarily privileged electricity producer shall mean a legal person or an entrepreneur that has been granted the right to market premium, and/or the right to feed-in tariff and that has other rights and obligations envisaged by this Law;

57) a dealer shall mean a legal person or an entrepreneur registered in the Republic of Serbia, which sells, hires, hire purchases or displays a product to the consumers, or an installer delivering a product to the product buyer, whether or not in return for payment;

58) energy efficiency program shall mean the planning document passed by the local self-government unit, and/or another obligated party of the energy management system on the planned method of achievement and extent of planned energy saving objective, for a period of three years at the minimum;

59) an energy-related product (a product) shall mean any good or a system which has an impact on energy consumption during use, which is placed on the market and/or put into service, including the parts having impact on energy consumption during use, which are placed on the market or put into service for the buyer, which are intended to be incorporated into the product;

60) a manufacturer shall mean a natural or legal person or an entrepreneur which manufactures a product or has a product designed or manufactured, and which places such product on the market under his own name or trademark;

61) an energy service provider shall mean a natural or legal person or an entrepreneur which delivers an energy service and implements other energy efficiency improvement measures with the energy service beneficiary;

62) putting into service shall mean the first use of a product for its intended purpose in the Republic of Serbia;

63) rescaled label shall mean an energy label for a particular product group the class of which has undergone rescaling and is distinguishable from energy labels before rescaling while preserving a visual and perceptible coherence of all labels;

64) reconstruction shall mean performance of construction and other works on an existing facility within the dimensions and volume of the facility which have an impact on the compliance with the basic requirements for the facility, are changing the technological process; altering the outward appearance of the facility or increasing the number of functional units, whereby devices, plants, equipment and installations are replaced with a capacity increase;

65) SEMIS shall mean the information system for monitoring of the implementation of an energy management system which is managed by the Ministry in charge of energy-related tasks;

66) energy management system shall mean a system of organized energy management that includes the broadest set of regulatory, organisational, incentive, technical and other measures and activities, as well as of organized monitoring and analysis of the performance of energy activities and energy consumption, which are, within the scopes of their respective powers, planned and implemented by the obligated parties of the energy management system;

67) district heating/cooling system shall mean transmission of thermal energy, from the site of production of the thermal energy, through the thermal energy distribution network, to multiple facilities, for the needs of space heating or cooling or for the needs of technological processes;

68) efficient district heating/cooling system shall mean a district heating/cooling system that is using at least 50% of energy from renewable sources of energy, 50% waste heat, 75% cogenerated heat or 50% of a combination of energy thus generated;

69) a heating system shall mean a system of devices and equipment required for indoor air conditioning, by means of which higher temperature is achieved;

70) an air conditioning system shall mean a system of devices and equipment required for indoor air conditioning, in the sense of temperature control thereof;

71) an incentive system shall mean a set of incentive measures related to high-efficiency cogeneration;

72) specific energy consumption shall mean the ratio of energy consumed to the quantity of product or service, or the floor area of a facility, etc.; specific energy consumption is one of the indicators used to assess energy efficiency improvement;

73) placing on the market shall mean making a product available for the first time on the market of the Republic of Serbia with a view to its distribution or use, whether for reward or free of charge and irrespective of the selling technique;

74) technical building system shall mean all the technical equipment of the building or building unit for heating, cooling, ventilation of space, heating of sanitary hot water, lighting of the building, automatic management and control, power generation in the building, or a combination thereof, including the systems that are using the energy from renewable sources of energy;

75) market premium shall mean the type of operational state aid that is an addition to the market price of electricity supplied by the premium beneficiaries to the market and which is set in Euro cents per kWе in a bidding procedure;

76) a heat pump shall mean a device or a technical system or an installation enabling transfer of the heat in the direction contrary to the natural one from the surrounding air, water or ground of a lower temperature, to the air in the facility or to the sanitary hot water of a higher temperature, for the needs of heating or for industrial applications. For reversible heat pumps, it may also move the heat from the facility to the surroundings;

77) thermal energy shall mean the internal (thermal) energy of boiling water, hot water or steam or a cooling fluid, which is used for heating or cooling of space, heating of sanitary hot water or for the needs of technological processes;

78) total useful floor area within the meaning of this Law shall be the net floor area of a building or part of a building, where energy is used to condition the indoor climate;

79) total net floor area within the meaning of this Law shall be the net floor area of a building or a part of a building which in addition to the total useful floor area includes the floor area of the parts of the building where energy is not used to condition the indoor climate;

80) energy savings shall mean an amount of saved energy determined by measuring and/or estimating consumption before and after implementation of energy efficiency improvement measures, whilst ensuring normalization for external conditions that affect energy consumption.

Other terms used in this Law shall have the meanings determined by the law governing the field of energy.