Serbia gets warning over digital clock failures

The digital clocks use the European electric grid frequency to synchronise the time.  

The Serbian power grid company (Elektromreza Srbije - EMS) said the clocks are running late because of the Kosovo transmission system (KOSTT). EMS said that KOSTT was importing electricity from other grids on the Continental Europe system without permission and causing the fluctuations in frequency.  

Deutsche Welle said the cause of the disruption in the frequency in the European power grid remain in place and added that digital clocks across the continent which use the grid to synchronise started running late again early in July. The first problems appeared early in March because of a dispute between Serbia and Kosovo whose KOSTT is not part of ENTSO-E because Kosovo is not recognized by some European countries.  

Kosovo’s power grid does not have its own regulation zone which would minimize the power frequency oscillations. Kosovo is part of the SMM regulatory zone which includes Entso-E Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. Serbia has refused to deal with the oscillation problem and that causes frequency fluctuations across the European power grid.  

Energy Community Deputy Director Dirk Buschle told Deutsche Welle in March that official Belgrade has no political or financial interest in seeing Kosovo become an independent regulatory zone because Serbia has been collecting the money from the sale of surplus power to Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro which should go to KOSTT.  

European power suppliers have installed a compensation program which is activated once the clocks run 60 or more seconds late.