Households in Serbia around 3.5 million meters will continue to pay green kilowatts for the next 12 years at feed-in tariffs (purchase price of electricity from renewable energy sources), even for those facilities that were not built before the validity of this regulation, ie until December 31, 2019.
It is even more interesting that kilowatts will be paid the most, which should not have been the case. Only that the Ministry of Energy adhered to the Decree on feed-in tariffs, which it just passed, and which was abolished on the last day of December 2019, and since then no new one should have received this tariff for the power plant.
According to Article 108 of the new Law on Renewable Energy Sources, temporarily privileged producers who acquired the status before December 31, 2019, still got the opportunity to buy green electricity at feed-in tariffs, even though they had not built power plants until then. In order for Article 108 to be respected, all domestic and foreign investors who planned to build wind farms, mini hydroelectric power plants, and solar parks had to go to the auction by law and agree on the purchase price of green electricity. With the fact that the purchase price envisaged by feed-in tariffs at auctions is always the highest, therefore, everything else that would be agreed at the auction would mean cheaper green kilowatts for all of us who pay for that electricity.
The goal of introducing auctions, as announced by the Ministry of Energy, was precisely to buy green kilowatts at lower prices than feed-in tariffs. It is obvious that someone wanted to “make” potential investors continue to sell electricity to EPS at the highest price, and that all citizens pay for it. Because when it’s out of someone else’s pocket it’s never expensive.
For example, if the purchase price at feed-in wind tariffs is 9.20 eurocents per kilowatt-hour at auction, it could be seven to eight eurocents. Or, a hydroelectric power plant with up to 0.2 megawatts of installed capacity, where the incentive purchase price is 12.40 euro cents, could also have been much lower.
The question is why the Ministry of Energy did not respect the regulations that are valid from January 1, 2020, and all those who are still building, or still intend to do so, refer to the auction and thus allow them to negotiate the price of electricity. Aside from the fact that a year and a half ago, the same fees for feed-in tariffs increased from 80 cents per kilowatt-hour consumed to 40 cents.
Asked whether it would not be logical for only those who have the status of a privileged producer (meaning a finished, built power plant) to be entitled to feed-in tariffs by December 31, 2019, and those who have not built them by then to wait for auctions and agree on a price there. They answer to the Ministry of Energy for Politika: “If we had not opted for such a solution, a bad and uncertain investment climate would have been created, because investors who have acquired certain rights must also have the opportunity to exercise them.”
When asked which companies use this right, ie how many of them received the status of a privileged producer in the relevant ministry, they answered that 15 power plants with a total installed capacity of 12,982 megawatts provided the right to incentive measures in accordance with the Regulation on Incentives for Renewable Electricity Production from highly efficient combined production of electricity and heat – after the repeal of the decree on December 31, 2019.
Why was this done, if the law prescribes otherwise?
The ministry explains that this is not about large capacities, having in mind the requirements of the European Union regarding the decarbonisation of a cleaner environment and energy security. Serbia, like other European countries, cannot give up a single kilowatt-hour of energy produced from renewable sources and from highly efficient combined production of electricity and heat. All that is true, only at what price.
Asked how many million euros will be allocated to these companies for incentive prices, ie for feed-in tariffs, the relevant ministry answered that at this moment it is not possible to determine exactly how much will be paid for incentives to privileged producers who acquired that status after December 31, 2019, because it depends on their future electricity production. At the beginning of each year, the Guaranteed Supplier (“EPS Supply”) publishes a report on the collected and paid funds for the incentive of privileged electricity producers for the previous year.
In any case, the fact that all potential investors (who did not receive the status of a privileged producer by the prescribed deadline) knew that an auction and bidding for the price for the purchase of green kilowatts would follow. In addition, the same European Union, to which the relevant ministry refers in its answers, ordered the abolition of feed-in tariffs and the introduction of auctions in 2015.
After all, it is clear that it is just a dead letter on paper. Because, how to interpret the fact that the new Law on Renewable Energy Sources that we hear about every day was passed, but that it is extraordinary for someone’s needs, Politika reports.
