Project Manager and Market Intelligence Specialist Nikolaj Candellari from CyberGrid said at the Belgrade Energy Forum 2025 that the company believes in the energy transition in Southeastern Europe and is contributing with its VPP solutions. The Austrian software developer is open to partnerships with aggregators or future aggregators and the region’s electricity transmission and distribution system operators.
CyberGrid connects different energy resources to different markets. It uses cloud-based flexibility management technology and provides software as a service (SaaS).
“Our core belief is that every energy resource should be renewable, or at least green, and flexible. And to support this transition which we are in at the moment, we have developed our own product called CyberNoc,” Project Manager and Market Intelligence Specialist Nikolaj Candellari said at Belgrade Energy Forum (BEF 2025).
CyberNoc in real time aggregates the assets – batteries, renewables and even loads and is putting them to the markets, Candellari explained. In this way, the company supports grid stability and resilience and generates additional revenue streams for owners.
“We are heavily present in the region because we believe in this transition in Southeastern Europe. We helped partners in Croatia, Bulgaria and North Macedonia to connect to different markets,” he stressed and added that the firm has established cooperation in Slovenia and Greece.
Candellari called on aggregators or future aggregators, transition and distribution system operators and all other entities in the electricity system to contact CyberGrid.
The company, founded in 2010 and headquartered in Vienna, is one of the friends of the Belgrade Energy Forum, organized in Serbia’s capital city by Balkan Green Energy News.
CyberNoc enables trading, balancing services
CyberNoc manages battery storage, power plants and consumption, optimizing them in line with market and grid conditions. The platform continuously communicates with the transmission system operator (TSO). It facilitates energy trading as well as the provision of balancing services including frequency control reserve (FCR), automatic frequency restoration reserve (aFRR) and manual frequency restoration reserve (mFRR).
Candellari also participated in a panel discussion at BEF 2025 called Market Flexibility: The Backbone of a Resilient Energy System. He recalled that the market went from 15-minute time intervals all the way down to just two seconds and stressed the significance of real-time data for TSOs and other participants.
“I think we can connect everything, including households,” Candellari underscored.
Notably, CyberGrid is part of the SPRINT project, launched at the beginning of the year, for the development of innovative quasi-solid-state sodium-ion batteries for stationary purposes. The endeavor received funding through the Horizon Europe program.
Croatia has earmarked EUR 25 million for households at risk of energy poverty. They will use the funds for the energy renovation.
The subsidies for households at risk of energy poverty are part of a EUR 652 million package for 2025 launched by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition and the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund (EPEEF or FZOEU). The incentives will be used for renewable energy sources, decarbonization of the district heating system and road traffic, and waste management.
The fund launched a public call for expressions of interest in using subsidies for energy efficiency measures.
Energy poverty is an increasingly important issue because the number of affected households is rising. They are struggling to cover the bills for electricity, gas and heating as the energy transition and energy crisis lifted prices.
Many governments have introduced measures to fix the issue. For example, Slovenia has adopted an action plan for the reduction of energy poverty, which foresees almost EUR 34 million for measures in the period 2024-2026.
Croatia adopted the definition of energy poverty this year
Until this year, Croatia had no official definition of energy poverty. It was included in the changes to the law on energy efficiency.
The legislation defines an energy-poor household as one that doesn’t have access to basic energy services to ensure a basic standard of living and health.
The requirements are suitable heating, hot water, cooling, lighting, and energy to power household appliances. There is a combination of causes of deficits in the said segments. Among them are weak purchasing power, insufficient income, high energy costs, poor energy performances of buildings, and low energy efficiency, according to the public call.
FZOEU invited citizens to fill out a questionnaire and send photos
A European household is said to be at risk of energy poverty if it spends more than 10% of its income on energy.
The funding scheme for natural persons is for measures and investments in energy efficiency and decarbonization of heating and cooling at family houses.
FZOEU seeks to receive information from citizens through questionnaires and photo documentation. The aim is to help the body define the details of a public call for granting subsidies, scheduled to be issued by mid-year.
Kosovo’s decision to liberalize its electricity market threatens to spark a new crisis, as business consumers face significantly higher prices compared to the current, regulated rates. As a warning, disgruntled business owners plan to block the main roads leading into the capital, Prishtina, for two hours on Thursday, May 29.
Starting on June 1, businesses with an annual turnover of over EUR 10 million will be required to buy electricity on the open market, losing the right to regulated prices. Kosovo’s electricity market is the only one in the region that has not yet been opened to competition, and the decision to do so has been postponed several times since 2017.
The Kosovo Chamber of Commerce (KCC) said last week that out of 19 power companies licensed to supply electricity, only KESCO had made an offer to customers, at a price many times higher than the current rate, according to Kosovapress.
AmCham: Businesses are facing electricity price hikes of over 200%
The American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo* has also expressed its deep concern regarding the significant risks that the liberalization, in its current form, poses to economic activity, employment, and long-term competitiveness of Kosovo*. It warned that businesses are exposed to electricity price increases of over 200%
The protest planned for tomorrow follows a series of meetings and numerous attempts to delay the latest decision on market liberalization. The KCC has said the business community wants the government to enable a fair and manageable transition phase, warning the protests will continue until the demands are met.
Businesses want a transition phase to enable a fair integration into the free market
The transition phase would allow for the gradual preparation of businesses for a sustainable and fair integration into the free energy market, the KCC said in a press release.
“If institutions do not reflect and do not take concrete steps to address the demands of businesses, the protests will continue until they are met,” it added.
The KCC also claims that the Energy Regulatory Office’s (ERO) decision to liberalize the market was made without proper analysis or consultation with stakeholders. It also said it would launch a “legal battle” to challenge the decision.
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* This designation is without prejudice to positions onstatus and is in line with UNSCR 1244/99 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
The surge in the number of hours with negative wholesale electricity prices in Europe made 2024 the second consecutive record year. According to ACER’s Director Christian Zinglersen, it means a new era is here. Speaking at Belgrade Energy Forum – BEF 2025, he called on governments, regulators and system operators to tackle the issue with more flexibility and reap the benefits of integrated electricity markets.
At EUR 81 per MWh, the average day-ahead power price in the European Union and Norway was lower last year than in 2021, when the energy crisis began. This is good news, but there are significant differences in price averages across the continent, Director of the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) Christian Zinglersen asserted.
In a keynote speech at Belgrade Energy Forum, BEF 2025, he also pointed out that the percentage of days with significant price swings remained elevated. “This suggests that we need much more short-term flexibility in the system,” Zinglersen said.
Prices in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary among highest in Europe
In 2024, the share of time when prices were above EUR 150 per MWh landed at 6.1%, compared to 11.3% in the previous year and 66.7% in 2022. The number of days with price swings greater than EUR 50 per MWh accounted for a strong 70.4% of the total, though down from 77.1% in 2023 and 87.8% one year before.
The average price in Romania was virtually unchanged in 2024. It fell only 1% in Bulgaria and 5% in Hungary. Conversely, the drop was the strongest in Sweden, Norway, France and Belgium: 22% to 39%.
The average day-ahead electricity price in Romania was virtually unchanged last year, while in several countries it tumbled by at least 22%
Last year, prices were the highest across Italy, between EUR 106 per MWh and EUR 112 MWh, in Ireland (EUR 109 per MWh), Romania (EUR 104 per MWh), Bulgaria (EUR 103 per MWh) and Greece and Hungary (both EUR 101 per MWh).
Importantly, 2024 was the second consecutive record year in the number of hours with negative wholesale prices. Their share jumped to 2.8% from 1.9%.
“This is very significant and it shows we are already, in my view, in a new era. We’re not just embarking upon it. We’re there,” Zinglersen stressed.
Photo: ACER
Share of very low wholesale prices rallies back to level from 2020
As for the share of time with very low wholesale prices, it surged last year to 8.8%. The level was last seen in 2020, when the pandemic erupted and resulted in an unprecedented demand shock, ACER’s chief noted. He called on governments, regulators and system operators to tackle the issues with more flexibility.
Grid tariffs increasingly need to show what the system needs, in his view: more time nuance and more locational nuance. “That combination of an energy signal and a tariff signal should hopefully enable us to build more of what we need in the right places, as opposed to build what we don’t need, in the wrong places,” Zinglersen stated.
Integrated markets bring benefits
A policy brief that Brussels-based think tank Bruegel published last year pointed to the benefits of the integration of electricity markets. Among other factors, there is more security with fewer backup power plants and more flexibility with less investment in energy storage, together with lower capital costs. In 2022, ACER, based in Ljubljana, estimated benefits from cross-border trade alone at EUR 34 billion in the EU.
“It has very significant security of supply implications as well, to be in a very integrated-type jurisdiction,” Zinglersen underscored. But integrated markets come with tradeoffs, he said.
One of the examples is an incident in 2021 that split the Continental Europe synchronous area into two parts for an hour and reserves were pulled from across the continent. “But you can also bring the system much more quickly back together again,” Zinglersen said at the conference.
The same goes for the June 2024 blackout in the Balkans.
There are many solutions in Europe, but they are not evenly distributed
ACER’s director also recalled the power price decorrelation that affected Southeastern Europe and Hungary from July to September. He attributed some of the spikes in day-ahead prices to the lack of short-term flexibility, for instance batteries.
There are lots of technical solutions and frameworks in place across Europe, but they are not very evenly distributed, he added.
Zinglersen pointed to the opportunities and benefits of further integrating the electricity market of the Western Balkans region and the EU.
Slovenia-based NGEN, widely regarded as the most innovative energy company in the SEE region, is expanding throughout Europe with its software platforms and equipment, as well as battery energy storage systems for decentralized grids that enable scaling up the decarbonization of the electricity sector. Co-Founder and CEO Roman Bernard said at the Belgrade Energy Forum 2025 that the company is establishing a digital endpoint for every network element. It enables real-time control over production and consumption, preventing blackouts and providing cybersecurity. At the conference, NGEN presented its services for the construction and operation of BESS and access to all segments of the electricity market.
In NGEN’s vision, the electricity system becomes fully digital and decentralized, with every house and business taking an active part in it.
Grid congestion is becoming more frequent, limiting the current rapid deployment of renewables. Most of Europe has centralized networks, where energy flows in one direction, from large power plants to consumers. Grid balancing is still conducted on a 15-minute basis, which is too slow for real-time demand.
NGEN has created platforms for energy that is produced, stored and consumed locally. It is developing a more efficient and reliable environment that can keep up with the scaling up of renewable energy technologies.
Photo: NGEN
NGEN has answers for all challenges of power system
The Slovenia-based company is tackling all current challenges that the power system is facing, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Roman Bernard said at Belgrade Energy Forum – BEF 2025. NGEN, the technology sponsor of this year’s conference, operates in nine European countries.
Pointing to the pace of increase in solar and wind power plant capacity over the past years, Bernard said a centralized system wouldn’t be able to support the overall production and consumption anymore. “We want to make a digital endpoint for every unit that is included in the network. Through it we can communicate and raise or decrease consumption or production,” he explained.
Bernard: Cybersecurity is the most important part of digitalization
It enables control over the system, as otherwise it is in risk of blackouts, while such a transformation also brings significant savings in infrastructure, according to Bernard. He also stressed cybersecurity as the most important part of digitalization.
The CEO of NGEN, which stands for next generation, added that the sector needs to be further regulated across Europe to facilitate the construction of a new kind of infrastructure, as well as to motivate the corporate sector to get involved.
The company’s representatives Marco Scholz and Patrick Simon held a presentation at BEF 2025
Instant frequency response preventing cascading blackouts
In Bernard’s view, now is the time for battery energy storage systems (BESS), after a massive renewables capacity was added to the system in the last seven or eight years. The CEO was one of the panelists at BEF 2025 in a session on flexibility services called Market Flexibility: The Backbone of a Resilient Energy System.
NGEN developed its own software as well as hardware for running decentralized systems, cybersecurity and access to all segments of the energy market. The software has never gone down so far, its representatives said during their presentation at the conference. The firm is a contractor for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of BESS, also providing maintenance and operation.
Its intelligent software ESGP, Energy Smart Grid Platform, provides instant frequency response preventing cascading blackouts. NGEN’s digital platform, called SG Connect, reacts automatically, providing backup in the event of a failure in under 20 milliseconds, enabling real-time grid balancing. At the same time, it monitors and manages in two-second intervals, through the NGEN Synaptic artificial intelligence (AI controller).
It is a plug-and-play module, installed at energy assets, connecting them to ESGP, the transmission system operator (TSO) and all relevant markets, the company said. On the customer side is the SG Connect application.
NGEN has projects of 2 GWh in Europe under development or in construction. As for notable operational facilities, it installed a BESS in Kidričevo in Slovenia, with 35 MW in operating power and 70 MWh in capacity. The facility is about to get an extension of 70 MW – 140 MWh.
Digitalization and massive use of data are crucial for providing flexibility services that bring benefits for transmission system operators and renewable energy producers. Aggregators and software firms have developed the technological solutions. However, the process, together with the introduction of flexibility platforms, requires a long time. The reforms also have to be accompanied by market liberalization and end consumers acting as active buyers, according to the participants of Belgrade Energy Forum 2025.
The panel on flexibility services called Market Flexibility: The Backbone of a Resilient Energy System was one of eight that were held at Belgrade Energy Forum 2025 (BEF 2025).
The conference, organized by Balkan Green Energy News, welcomed four hundred participants from more than 30 countries from the region, Europe, and beyond.
“Flexibility has been promoted in Europe as a buzzword, sometimes reflected as demand-side flexibility, but it represents so much more. It includes supply-side flexible assets like hydro, biomass, storage, as well as grid-side flexibility,” according to panel moderator Elena Boškov Kovacs, co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Energy Solutions, and a leading voice on market flexibility in Europe.
Serbia will introduce a flexibility services market
Elena Boškov Kovač and Roman Bernard (photo: Balkan Green Energy News)
Serbia’s transmission system operator (TSO) Elektromreža Srbije (EMS) is preparing to liberalize the ancillary services market. The country adopted the Law on Energy in November and implemented a large proportion of the European Union’s Electricity Integration Package (EIP) while the remaining parts will be transposed through bylaws.
“The balancing capacity market will be liberalized from next year. We will have new participants – active buyers and independent aggregators,” said Marko Zarić, Head of the Market Operations sector of EMS.
He stressed that the TSO is trying to ensure that no market participant is impaired by engaging flexibility resources or demand side response or a balancing service.
“EMS has finished drafting the new market code, which envisages dual balancing responsibility. We will launch a public debate on the act. The TSO estimates that it is the best solution to open the market of flexibility services,” he noted.
Bernard: Technology is on our side
NGEN CEO Roman Bernard expressed the opinion that the region is moving in the right direction, and suggested to regulators to look around and implement best practices. If the participants in the market are motivated, things will go forward, he added.
Back in 2019-2020, when NGEN started its operations in Slovenia, flexibility services were a pioneering job. The Slovenian energy company, the technology sponsor of the BEF 2025 conference, specializes in premium battery energy storage systems (BESS) and smart energy solutions.
According to Bernard, the balancing services market in the EU is well developed thanks to balancing platforms MARI (Manually Activated Reserves Initiative) and PICASSO (Platform for the International Coordination of Automated Frequency Restoration and Stable System Operation).
“We have 150 employees, and we can do everything. Technology is on our side and the sky’s the limit,” he stressed.
For example, NGEN solutions can provide monetization of battery energy storage systems (BESS), and the only thing that is needed is investors in such facilities.
Digitalization is the only way forward
Roman Bernard, Luka Renko and Magdolna Tokai (photo: Balkan Green Energy News)
The representatives of aggregators KOER and Alteo and software company CyberGrid all agreed that digitalization and the use of data are crucial for the energy transition.
Compared to NGEN and its use of BESS, Croatia-based KOER, a pioneer in virtual power plants in the region, is utilizing existing assets, like diesel generators, or employing the flexibility intrinsic to most manufacturing companies; for example, cement factories and wood manufacturers.
Existing assets work well, not just batteries, KOER COO Luka Renko stressed.
The only problem, in his words, is digitalization. The majority of the said firms aren’t ready to connect to the platform to be automatically switched on and off. The markets are getting faster and faster, so digitalization is the only way forward, Renko claimed.
Alteo, a leading Hungarian aggregator, also believes in lots and lots of data, which back up its scheduling and contribute to the security of supply.
Tokai: Alteo is looking for partners in the region
“Our superpower is providing scheduling services with the support of AI, including lots of data,” said Magdolna Tokai, Deputy CEO for International Relations and Corporate Services of Alteo.
Hungary has experienced a photovoltaic boom in the past four or five years, with the installation of almost 8,000 MW. It’s good for greening power production, but not from the perspective of a TSO, and that is where aggregators come into the picture, she added.
Alteo is combining conventional resources like gas-fired power plants with renewables. It currently has 140 MW in renewable resources, it manages 2,000 MW of third-party solar, and operates two virtual power plants. The company is providing the service to small photovoltaic facilities and the TSO.
Alteo is integrating solar energy in a product that is close to baseload, and placing it on the market. It translates to lower balancing costs for solar and a more stable product for the TSO, she explained.
Serbia is facing a challenge from the upcoming 1.2 GW of solar power
Alteo has just started implementing its new strategy for regional growth by exporting know-how on balancing services and providing flexibility to market players.
According to Nikolaj Candellari, Project Manager and Market Intelligence of CyberGrid, real-time data gives a TSO and other market participants the possibility to understand where they are.
He recalled that, over the years, the market went from 15-minute time stamps, down to one minute, and that now it is only two seconds. The improvement helps dealing with challenges, and CyberGrid knows a lot about such issues.
“For Serbia, the challenge comes with 1.2 GW of solar, which will be installed next year. So if you don’t see it as a challenge, ask yourself who needs 1.2 GW of energy at noon on Sunday,” Nikolaj said.
Over its 15 years of existence, CyberGrid developed good examples of how to exchange data with assets and TSOs.
“Assets are always the same, no matter the country, but to have this data exchange with TSOs, or even market platforms, that is something I think we need to do in the future in Southeastern Europe,” he stressed.
How to get to the future: properly liberalize markets
Luka Renko, Magdolna Tokai and Nikolaj Candellari (photo: Balkan Green Energy News)
Elena Boškov Kovač (Blueprint Energy Solutions) asked the panel participants what the solution is for addressing different types of flexibility assets including prosumers.
“How do we avoid getting stuck in the easy-to-commercialize part of the aggregation, and postpone the true demand response, which is needed to avoid the issues with negative pricing and electricity market swings?” she asked.
There is no dilemma for Nikolaj Candellari (CyberGrid): “I think we can connect everything, including households.”
It is something futuristic, he said. “We have to try to go as low as possible and connect everybody because, in the end, it’s not different if you have a 1 MW battery or 100 smaller residential ones” of 1 MW combined, Candellari asserted.
His company is currently implementing a project to integrate 150 batteries of 2 MW overall and put them on the market.
The batteries can drive the prices for end users down by 25% within five years
Candellari and Roman Bernard (NGEN) alike highlighted the factor of market motivation.
Bernard said motivation is created by the market. The imbalance price can go up to EUR 15,000 per MWh, and it is the signal and the motivation to fix everything, in his opinion.
He is convinced that batteries can lower the prices for end users by 25% within five years if dynamic prices are applied.
According to Nikolaj Candellari, participants will come to the market, as long as it’s not too regulated. As an example of a non-functional market, he mentioned Bulgaria, where the capacity price for downward regulation is zero.
“So, why would anybody join the market, if the capacity price is zero? Get the market running and you will get participants and capacity needed to balance it,” he said.
Tokai: We need a proper energy mix
Magdolna Tokai (Alteo) has a slightly different view of the markets. She recalled that episodes of negative prices are happening in Hungary, while that last August and September very high prices were recorded on HUPX, up to EUR 1,000 per MWh, and above EUR 500 per MWh in Croatia and Serbia.
“We have to be prepared for that, which is data, data, data, and the cooperation of all the market players, providing the proper energy mix, and the proper product for the TSO,” she pointed out.
Marko Zarić (EMS) stressed time as a vital ingredient for developing markets. A transition from the regulated market to the truly open market envisages multiple steps that take time, he said.
Flexibility platforms need time for implementation
Nikolaj Candellari and Marko Zarić (photo: Balkan Green Energy News)
Another big change are the balancing platforms developed by aggregators. Traditionally, TSOs were buying the same kind of standardized product, for example, SCADA, EMS, and other market applications, with more or less the same kind of functionalities.
Elena Boškov Kovač (Blueprint Energy Solutions) brought up the question of a more standardized approach. “Before we start talking about interoperability and connecting with everything else, would it be good to at least have platforms with similar kinds of functionalities and services provided?” she asked.
According to Luka Renko (KOER), every platform is structured in line with the needs of the operator. The communication platforms are more or less standardized, but it depends on what one needs in the background and what kind of assets they drive.
Piloting a flexibility platform can take years
The two aggregators, KOER and Alteo, developed their platforms because they couldn’t find a ready-made solution on the market.
A platform must have the ability to communicate with any other solution and to integrate new types of power plants and customers, Magdolna Tokai (Alteo) added.
Elena Boškov Kovač (Blueprint Energy Solutions) recalled that her company has implemented flexibility platforms since 2019, at the dawn of the opening of the flexibility market in Europe, and added that pilot projects for them take a long time.
“They require an immense amount of data. There’s a multitude of different stakeholders that need to support this, unlock the data, provide data resources. Piloting is incredibly important, and it can take years,” she pointed out.
Luka Renko (KOER) added that it took his company three to four years to start working as an aggregator in Croatia.
The future is bright, but we need to work on it
The panelists with Branislava Jovičić, Founder and Editor of Balkan Green Energy News (photo: Balkan Green Energy News)
Summarized, here are the messages of the session’s participants:
Bernard (NGEN): The end consumer will start acting as an active buyer.
Zarić (EMS): We see changes in the future.
Candellari (CyberGrid): Open the markets.
Tokai (Alteo): Give a chance to all market participants and types of production.
Renko (KOER): Digitalization will help.
Elena Boškov Kovač (Blueprint Energy Solutions) praised the companies that had their representatives at the panel for starting to develop solutions ahead of the market reform.
“It’s also a good message to the system of sometimes sleepy energy companies waiting for their proprietary vendors to offer them solutions,” Boškov Kovač stated.
