Croatia’s HEP ODS Plans €1.95 Billion Grid Investment to Absorb Renewable Growth

Croatia’s electricity distribution operator HEP ODS has drawn up a ten-year infrastructure investment programme worth €1.95 billion covering 2027 to 2036, with the primary goal of adapting the country’s distribution grid to accommodate rising volumes of clean generation. The figure excludes connection costs; it covers line and substation upgrades, smart metering rollout, and preparations for new grid connections.

The plan front-loads spending in the opening three years: €600.3 million is allocated for 2027–2029, broken down as €185.8 million in 2027, €204.5 million in 2028, and €210 million in 2029. Priority areas include medium- and low-voltage networks at 10 and 20 kV levels, projects under Croatia’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, and the smart meter deployment needed to properly record output from small-scale generators. Revenues from connection fees are increasingly being channelled toward broader grid development for renewables, while the expected growth of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure is expected to shape investment decisions in later periods.

The Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency HERA is running public consultations on the draft document from 6 to 26 October; the outcome will determine final investment commitments. HEP ODS updates its ten-year plans annually.

In a separate policy paper, HERA flagged a structural gap: distribution operators, HEP ODS among them, are not yet equipped to adequately support prosumers. The pace of smart meter installation in particular remains too slow to keep pace with the expansion of distributed generation across the network.

Source: Balkan Green Energy News