Competitive procedure amendments
In April 2019 the minister of environment and energy amended the competitive procedures for determining operating state aid granted as feed-in premiums for 2019 and 2020 (Decision 34495/1107 (OJ Β' 1341/2019)).
According to the new schedule, in 2019 there will be at least:
- one territorially determined competitive procedure to cover capacities for the new Nea Makri-Evia connection (such capacities have yet to be decided), whose initial auctioning price has been determined at €65 per MWh; and
- one regular competitive procedure determined by technology for two categories:
- 500kW to 20MW (with a maximum offered capacity of 400MW and an initial auctioning price of €69.26 per MWh) for photovoltaic (PV) projects; and
- 3MW (6MW for energy communities) to 50MW (with a maximum offered capacity of 430MW and an initial auctioning price of €69.18 per MWh) for wind projects.
Notably, smaller plants (both wind and PV) may also participate.
Further, in 2020 there will be at least:
- one joint wind and PV competitive procedure for large projects with a maximum offered capacity of 500MW; and
- one regular competitive procedure determined by technology for the following categories:
- 500kW to 20MW (with a maximum offered capacity of 300MW (increased for the remainder of 2019)) for PV projects; and
- 3MW (6MW for energy communities) to 50MW (with a maximum offered capacity of 300MW (increased for the remainder of 2019) for wind projects, including those with an installed capacity of up to 60kW (with a maximum offered capacity of 20MW).
The initial price for the other competitive procedures will be determined as the average between the initial price and the weighted average price achieved in the previous competitive procedure for the same technology and category.
April 2019 – first joint RES tender for wind and PV
On 18 April 2019 the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) announced the results of the 15 April 2019 auction for operational state aid for renewable energy source (RES) plants (Decision 436/2019). The selected plants capacity and prices were as follows:
- 60MW for €53 per MWh;
- 139.245MW for €54.46 per MWh;
- 82.64MW for €55.46 per MWh;
- 24.231MW for €58.4 per MWh;
- 66.6MW for €60.6 per MWh;
- 27.684MW for €64.72 per MWh; and
- 37.376MW for €64.72 per MWh.
The weighted average price was €57.03 per MWh.
July 2019 – competitive procedure with only two categories
In April 2019 the RAE announced the regular competitive procedure for wind farms and PV projects with a maximum offered capacity of 300MW (Decision 41/2019). The competitive procedure was held on 1 July 2019 and the results were published on 3 July 2019 (Decision 705/2019).
The final auctioned capacities were:
- 143.041MW (with an initial price of €69.26 per MWh) for PV projects; and
- 186.964MW (with an initial price of €69.18 per MWh) for wind projects.
The achieved reference prices for PV plants ranged from €67.7 per MWh to €61.95 per MWh and the average price was €62.78 per MWh (approximately 9.37% lower than the starting price), while the unsold capacities were 157.189MW.
The achieved reference prices for wind projects ranged from €69.18 per MWh to €59.09 per MWh and the average price was €67.32 per MWh (approximately 2.7% lower than the starting price).
Regarding PV producers, the auction confirmed the prevailing selection of large PV plants (held by large business groups), now that the small (ie, 500kW to 1 MW) and large PV plant categories have been merged.
The latest competitive procedures resulted in significant price reductions for PV and wind projects. However, owners of small PV plants have claimed that they have been disadvantaged by the merging of all PV plant categories into one, particularly considering the recent regulatory amendments which prohibit them from receiving feed-in tariffs for more than two plants.
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