In Serbia, Croatian transmission operator HOPS has transferred the Serbian section of the 110 kV Nijemci-Sid cross-border power line to Serbian grid operator EMS for about €125,000. The deal ends a decades-old ownership arrangement that had complicated repairs and maintenance. Each operator will now own and manage the infrastructure in its own territory.
Severe storms damaged the interconnection in July 2023. More than 35% of the 12.66-kilometre Croatian section was destroyed or seriously damaged, while more than 40% of the roughly 12.5-kilometre Serbian section suffered substantial damage. HOPS repaired its section during 2023 and early 2024, spending more than €950,000.
HOPS could not reconstruct the assets in Serbia because it had no legal authority to carry out work there. The ownership anomaly originated in Yugoslavia: the interconnection was built in 1976, and HOPS later retained ownership of the entire line despite roughly half of it being in Serbia. HOPS proposed transferring the Serbian assets to EMS in August 2023.
Ownership transfer and valuation
Although the ageing infrastructure had a net book value of zero, independent valuations put its market value at between €120,000 and €129,000. The operators agreed on a price of €125,000 and signed the purchase contract in November 2023. The transfer resolves the ownership issue that had hindered work on the Serbian section.
The Croatian government estimates that the arrangement delivered more than €1 million in financial benefits for HOPS, including avoided reconstruction costs of about €900,000 on the Serbian side. The transaction was also reviewed in light of unresolved Croatia-Serbia border-demarcation issues. Croatian authorities concluded that the asset transfer would not affect either country’s position in future border negotiations.
Under the new arrangement, EMS and HOPS will independently handle maintenance, repairs and future investment on their respective sections of the interconnection. Each operator will manage the infrastructure located within its own territory.
