The Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia, AERS, is completing consultation on rules for supplier and aggregator switching, with the consultation closing on Sept. 30. The draft includes aggregator changes even when a customer already has a full electricity-supply contract. The framework is intended to support a model in which flexibility services can be separated from electricity supply arrangements.
Switching rules and the independent aggregator definition
Serbia’s Energy Law defines an independent aggregator as an aggregator that is not connected with a customer’s electricity supplier. The law allows independent aggregators to participate in electricity markets without consent from other market participants. It also protects customers using independent aggregators from unjustified charges, penalties, or contractual restrictions imposed by suppliers.
The new switching rules are positioned as part of the operational framework needed to translate those legal rights into a customer-facing business. Under the emerging model, an industrial company could keep purchasing electricity from its existing supplier while contracting another company to manage flexible loads. This separation is described as creating a competitive layer between industrial customers and wholesale power markets.
Two relationships: supply procurement and flexibility management
In the proposed structure, the supplier manages energy procurement and billing while the aggregator manages flexibility. An industrial aggregator could combine controllable equipment across multiple customers and offer the resulting portfolio into markets where flexibility has value. The approach is not limited to conventional generation assets.
Potential flexibility resources listed for aggregation include industrial refrigeration, water pumping, furnaces, electric boilers, HVAC systems, cold storage, onsite generation, and eventually commercial EV fleets. These assets could be grouped into portfolios capable of increasing or reducing demand in response to market conditions. The model is therefore described as creating two electricity relationships within one customer arrangement.
Scale, portfolio construction and commercial roles
The draft describes scale as central to the business model because individual loads may be too small or unpredictable to trade efficiently. Aggregation is presented as converting multiple loads into a virtual resource that can be forecast, dispatched, and measured as one portfolio. In this setup, the aggregator’s value is linked more to contracts, software, telemetry, forecasting, and market access than to ownership of physical assets.
A plant capable of reducing 2 MW for a limited period may have limited incentive to build its own trading operation. By contrast, an aggregator combining dozens of similar sites could create a portfolio large and reliable enough to participate commercially. The framework could also broaden participation in Serbia’s electricity sector beyond traditional roles.
Market participation requirements and balancing responsibility
The draft notes that several market elements still need to mature for Serbia to develop a liquid independent-aggregation sector. Metering, baseline calculation, verification, balancing responsibility, data access, and technical requirements for individual market products are identified as factors affecting how easily aggregated demand can participate. Serbia’s Energy Law already places balancing responsibility on aggregators for deviations they cause.
The rules are described as requiring measurable delivery of flexibility rather than promises without verification. The emerging market would therefore depend on increasingly granular metering and automated control. For larger industrial consumers, this could connect with energy-management systems used to monitor production, electricity costs, and onsite generation.
Over time, the aggregator could become an interface between internal energy-management systems and external electricity markets. The AERS switching framework is described as not creating that market immediately. It addresses whether customers can change their flexibility provider without changing the company supplying their electricity.
As separation becomes operational, Serbia moves toward a market where electricity consumption can be contracted, aggregated, and traded as a separate energy service.