Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) signed the Energy Community Treaty, which sets the parameters for creation of a regional electricity and gas market. There are numerous technical and political challenges in reforming the energy sector to become consistent with the requirements of the Treaty. BiH’s compliance and consistency with the Treaty will ensure its attractiveness to investors by creating more competitive and transparent conditions for economic growth. The country will have greater access to a diverse set of energy options as well as strong independent regulatory bodies able to respond to citizens’ demands. 

 

Under the auspices of a Cooperative Agreement between USAID and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ (NARUC), NARUC has launched a partnership activity with three energy regulatory commissions of BiH: the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC), the Federation Electricity Regulatory Commission (FERC), and Republika Srpska Energy Regulatory Commission (RSERC). This partnership, funded by USAID/BiH, forms a part of NARUC’s Energy Regulatory and Security Program in Europe and Eurasia.

 

The Regulatory Partnership Project is designed to enhance the exchange of best practices and information between U.S. and BiH regulatory bodies to improve regulatory processes and foster long-term sustainable relationships between regulatory entities. The Ohio Public Services Commission (PUCO) serves as the lead commission in the partnership. PUCO has been involved in market opening, customer switching, ancillary services, and other elements of energy market liberalization, and will provide much-needed hands-on experience to BiH regulators. The partnership will broaden and support energy sector reform by emphasizing coordinated efforts and procedural commonalities. To facilitate successful implementation of the project, NARUC has established a BiH field office. 

 

Through three carefully orchestrated exchange sessions structured around collaboratively identified priority topics, participating regulators learned internationally accepted practices and how they could apply them. Among the partnership’s achievements, special attention is drawn to the assistance in adoption of several crucial rules that govern the functioning of the retail electricity market in BiH. The information and hands-on experience gained through this USAID activity contributed significantly to the harmonization of BiH’s regulations toward market-oriented reform to meet Energy Community norms and practices that will promote the integration of the BiH energy sector into larger Southeast and European Energy Market and energy trade bodies.