Here is what the enforcement of this scheme means for those who produce energy from wind, sun and water: up to six times more money for electricity delivered into the system. CEZ is at the top of the list, with over EUR32 million from green certificates between January and November 2011.
When it joined the EU, Romania committed to complying with a set of targets, some of which concern green energy consumption. In 2020, 24% of energy consumed on the Romanian market, whether in the form of electricity, heating or transport, needs to be green.
In the case of gross electricity consumption, green energy needs to account for 38% of total consumption in 2020.
Since green energy investments are more expensive than those in conventional energy, Romania, like many other member states, has put together support schemes in order to be able to attract investors and hit its targets.
This support scheme, which is enforced over 15 years only in the case of facilities made functional or retooled by 2016, consists of green certificates and mandatory quotas.
The old system
This is basically how the system worked until November. For each MWh delivered, a producer received a green certificate, irrespective of the technology used.
The value of a certificate ranges between EUR27 and EUR55. Any supplier of energy in Romania, such as Electrica, for instance, needs to meet certain mandatory quotas of green energy in the basket it delivers to consumers. Since Electrica does not produce green energy, it buys the certificates from the market in order to reach its annual mandatory quota, with the money going into the accounts of renewable energy producers.
But for any supplier, the acquisition of green certificates is an added cost, which is then transferred into the bills paid by the population and by companies, the main sponsors of the renewable energy support scheme.
The system described above functioned based on a government decision issued in 2004 (HG 1892/2004) whereby to every MWh of green energy produced corresponded one single green certificate, irrespective of whether this was wind, solar energy or hydro-power.
The new system
In 2008, Romania established a new system, stated by Law 220/2008. Under this law, the number of green certificates varied widely depending on the technology involved.
Although the law was published in the Official Journal, it did not become effective as it lacked the approval of the European Commission.
The approval came this year, amendments were brought and November became the first month of the law being effective, after a three-year wait from investors.
Under the new law, wind energy gets two green certificates, solar energy gets six, and every MWh produced in a new hydro-power station will get three green certificates.
The Romanian state will make available EUR10 billion for the support of green energy by 2020, the value of green certificates. Investors promised projects worth billions of euros, following the implementation of the law.
EUR11 million in 30 days
In November, when producers of wind and of solar energy accredited by the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) received two green certificates and six respectively, instead of a single one, investors had EUR11.3 million transferred into their accounts.
In the first 11 months of the year, the overall amounts collected by the 70 green energy producers reached over EUR77 million, show data of Transelectrica, the national energy transmission company.
“Around 80 producers were accredited in November, the rest will follow in December. The scheme was late to become functional, but it ultimately did, which is good news,” says Adrian Borotea, corporate affairs manager within CEZ Romania, the largest investor in wind farms so far.
Czech group CEZ produced 41,384.5 MWh in November at the Fantanele wind farm and got 82,767 green certificates. So, each MWh produced was rewarded with two green certificates, as the law provides for. For solar energy, for instance, in November, Renovatio Trading, which has a wind farm in Giurgiu, produced 61 MWh and collected 367 million green certificates, i.e. 6 per every MWh produced, as a result of the enforcement of the support scheme.
Transelectrica data show that the companies that collected the biggest amounts since the beginning of the year from the green certificate scheme are CEZ, which collected EUR32.7 million and Energias de Portugal, which collected EUR12.5 million with two farms.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)