Renewable Energy Producers Organization in Romania (PATRES) claims that amendments to the Energy Law, prepared by the Ministry of Energy imply set of measures that favor large international companies in the sector of wind energy and that these measures will lead to bankruptcy of small and medium-sized producers, especially in the sector of photovoltaic power plants. PATRES requires equitable solution for all producers in the renewable energy sector.
Ministry of Energy has recently issued a draft Emergency Ordinance on amendments to the Energy Law, revised after public debate, which relates to the support system for renewable energy sources.
In the press release issued on Wednesday PATRES expressed discontent and concern about the negative aspects presented by this project, which radically affect the activity of small and medium-sized producers of renewable energy. The Association claims that solution to avoid the bankruptcy of small and medium-sized electricity producers most of whom are investors with domestic capital, has not been found.
PATRES raises the question why it was decided to provide support to large international companies at the expense of domestic capital.
Small and medium-sized producers estimate that a critical aspect of the law is a continuation of award delay of two green certificates for solar technology by 2024 while a delay for the wind technology is foreseen until March 31, 2017.
This measure represents an unacceptable discrimination of solar technology, according to the Association.
PATRES points out that maintaining a minimum price from 29.4 to 25 euros (initial proposal of the Ministry of Energy) would reduce the number of green certificates in 2017 from 17 million (initial Emergency Ordinance) to 14.9 million (which shows the revised Emergency Ordinance after public consultation).
PATRES sent a letter to Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos asking to find same solutions for all renewable energy producers and investors.
The statement says that the law also introduces some improvements, for example by fixing the number of green certificates for 2017, and by not adopting minimum price of EUR 25 for green certificates. A positive step forward is the possibility of concluding bilateral agreements through direct negotiations for producers of capacity below 1 MW.
PATRES started working in 2014 and includes 94 producers of renewable energy from the entire spectrum of renewable energy sources, whose total installed capacity is 800 MW, and the level of investments in Romania is around EUR 1.2 billion.
