Last month, the Government decided to lower the fee for encouraging electricity production from renewable energy sources and high-efficiency cogeneration which is paid by all categories of end-customers through their electricity bills. The European Commission (EC) said that it has approved the plan of Croatian Government to offer benefits to energy-intensive companies by reducing the fees they are paying to incentivize electricity generation from renewable energy sources.
The statement from the EC said that the support scheme is in line with EU rules on state aid, adding that the scheme will be valid until the end of 2021 and will have an annual budget of about 10 million euros. It will be applied to companies in energy-intensive sectors which are more exposed to international trade by reducing their RES fees by as much as 80 %.
The lower fee enters into force as of 1 July and it will amount to 0.014 euros/kWh without VAT. Regarding industrial consumers, the fee would be lower for energy-intensive industries and to those customers who are required to obtain a CO2 emissions permit. In order to determine the criteria according to which these customers are allowed to reduce their fees, the Government also adopted a decision on the criteria for the payment of reduced fees for renewable energy sources and high-efficiency cogeneration. The aim of reducing the fee is to achieve the competitiveness of businesses with high electricity consumption.
