Croatian operator of electricity market HROTE has launched a public call for participating in auctions for awarding market premiums for electricity generation from renewable sources. This is the first such auction in the country for large-scale RES projects. Auctions for small-scale projects were held in early 2021.
Market premium is an incentive system in which HROTE pays the difference between the contracted reference value and the market price of electricity. The total quota for new projects is 630 MW, which is about 60 % of the current portfolio in the support system run by HROTE.
The auctions are open for:
Solar power plants with capacity larger than 500 kW; Hydropower plants with capacity from 500 kW to 10 MW; Wind farms with capacity larger than 3 MW; Biomass power plants with capacity from 500 kW to 5 MW; Biogas power plants with capacity from 500 kW to 2 MW; Geothermal power plants with capacity larger than 500 kW.
The public call prescribes the conditions that projects must meet in order to submit a bid and lasts for 60 days, after which an auction will be announced for 15 days during which project holders will be able to submit their bids. The public tender will be open exclusively for new projects, with quotas of 300 MW for wind and solar each, 8 MW for biomass and biogas each, 4 MW for small hydropower plants and 10 MW for geothermal power plants.
Ceiling prices are:
65.47 euros/MWh for solar power plants; 60.88 euros/MWh for wind farms;
16.95 euros/MWh for geothermal power plants; 186.45 euros/MWh for biomass power plants; 195.78 euros/MWh for biogas power plants; 144.71 euros/MWh for hydropower plants.
A market premium contract will be concluded with winning bids for 12 years from the activation of the contract, with the project holders having 4 years to build a facility, put it into operation and acquire the status of a privileged producer. If all quotas from this public call were filled and the plants realized, Croatia would get around 1.5 TWh per year of new renewable electricity.
