On 24 November 2025, a public presentation and discussion were held at the premises of MEPSO regarding the establishment of the new model for the allocation of cross-border capacities at the borders of North Macedonia with Serbia and Bulgaria. In the presence of representatives of the Energy and Water Services Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources, the Electricity Market Operator MEMO, as well as numerous electricity market participants—traders, electricity suppliers, and others, the process of implementing the new rules for long-term (annual and monthly) and short-term (daily) capacity allocations at the MEPSO–ESO (Republic of Bulgaria) and MEPSO–EMS (Republic of Serbia) borders was presented. As of 1 January 2026, these allocations will be carried out through the EU’s Single Allocation Platform – the Joint Allocation Office (JAO), headquartered in Luxembourg, as the only recognized allocation office within ENTSO-E.
The process of MEPSO’s accession to JAO, implemented in coordination with the operators from Bulgaria and Serbia, lasted less than one year and included several phases. First, the three operators aligned their positions on abandoning the previous bilateral allocation model, which had been based on mutual agreements and software solutions. Followingly, Application for Access to JAO and the formalization of cooperation were submitted, after which the technical teams began harmonizing the Allocation Rules and preparing the IT systems for information exchange with the JAO platform.
A key prerequisite for MEPSO’s accession to JAO was the adoption of the Harmonized Allocation Rules (HAR), issued and approved by ACER, and subsequently accepted by MEPSO, with formal approval by the Energy Regulatory Commission pending. HAR is fully aligned with Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/1719 on Forward Capacity Allocation, which enables at least 70% of transmission capacity to be offered via auctions.
System integration testing, i.e., the exchange of data files between MEPSO and JAO, was completed. The final remaining step is the approval by the Energy Regulatory Commission, expected to be finalized by the end of this month. In the meantime, electricity market participants must register on the JAO platform in due time to participate in the 2026 annual auctions, scheduled to begin in December 2025.