IN Brief:
- Serbia’s Ministry of Mining and Energy is evaluating expressions of interest for the Đerdap 3 pumped-storage hydropower project.
- Six companies have entered the early-stage process, which is linked to Serbia’s strategic energy cooperation with the United States.
- The project forms part of a wider national programme of energy investments running to 2030 and 2035.
Serbia’s Ministry of Mining and Energy is evaluating expressions of interest for the Đerdap 3 pumped-storage hydropower project, after six companies entered the early-stage procurement process.
The proposed scheme is one of Serbia’s most significant planned flexibility assets and forms part of a national energy investment programme that includes generation, storage, transmission, and system security projects running through 2030 and 2035.
The public call focused on companies from the United States and was linked to a strategic energy cooperation agreement between Serbia and the US. Following the close of the process in late June, a Serbian working group is assessing the submitted material before determining the next stage.
Đerdap 3 would add large-scale pumped-storage capacity to a region where flexibility requirements are rising. Pumped storage uses surplus electricity to move water to an upper reservoir and releases it through turbines when system demand, prices, or grid conditions require additional generation.
Unlike most electrochemical batteries, pumped storage can deliver large volumes of stored energy over long periods and across very long asset lives. Its development profile is more complex, involving heavy civil engineering, environmental assessment, hydrology, tunnelling, electromechanical procurement, grid connection design, and long construction periods.
Serbia is also advancing other storage-related planning, including the Bistrica pumped-storage project. Discussions with Romania over cooperation and information exchange connected to the Danube hydropower system add a further cross-border dimension, particularly where river infrastructure and regional electricity flows intersect.
Storage is becoming a central part of European power-system planning as renewable generation increases and dispatchable fossil-fuel flexibility declines. Earlier calls for long-duration storage to be treated as strategic infrastructure apply directly to pumped hydro, which remains one of the few mature technologies capable of delivering high-capacity, long-duration system support at scale.
Serbia’s power system is shaped by hydropower, thermal generation, regional interconnection, and growing renewable ambitions. Additional storage would strengthen balancing capability, reduce exposure to volatile import conditions, and support the integration of variable generation without relying solely on conventional generation flexibility.
Although the expressions of interest mark progress, construction is still some distance away. Major pumped-storage schemes require feasibility work, environmental permitting, financing models, turbine and generator specification, reservoir planning, grid studies, and often cross-border coordination where water systems are shared or affected.
South-east Europe faces many of the same flexibility pressures as larger western European markets, but with different grid constraints, legacy generation profiles, and financing conditions. Large storage projects in the region could support national reliability while also strengthening regional balancing and electricity trade.
Đerdap 3 now moves from market sounding into detailed assessment. Technical credibility, financing depth, environmental acceptability, and delivery capability will determine whether the project can move beyond strategic planning and become one of the region’s major storage infrastructure schemes.
