With the insistence and arguments coming from Romania, the Commission accepted. After a year and a half from applying at the scheme, the Romanian authorities twisted and stated that the support is too generous and is loading too much the electricity bill. The government will approve next week the draft Ordinance on postponing the grant of a number of green certificates until 2017, starting July 1, 2013.
During this period, it will be given a single green certificate for two wind power plants, two green certificates from three for new hydroplants with installed capacity of 10 MW, and four from six certificates for solar power plants. All this are given for each MWh produced and delivered. The deferred certificates, meaning one certificate for wind, one for hydro and two for the solar energy can be recovered after three years, depending on how the National Regulatory Authority for Energy (ANRE) will establish.
This means that what is not given in these three years will be recovered later. According to Law 220/2008, the number of green certificates should diminish in 2017. Given that the certificates not granted should be recovered in the next three years, this decrease will be applied later. Not all green certificates are reduced. For retrofitted hydroplants up to 10 MW will be granted further 2 green certificates. This is given that Hidroelectrica plans to sell small hydropowerplants that owns and require retrofits.
How we got here (a short story)
Several years ago, there were talks about Romania's great potential for renewable energy, even if the frenzy of investment in the field wasn’t yet started. In early 2010 only 14.1 megawatts were installed in wind farms. Investors were still waiting that the promised support scheme to be implemented by the authorities. In November 2008 the famous Law 220 was published, but in order to be granted, effective, green certificates, the authorities had to develop also the implementing rules. Those rules could not be approved until the European Commission gave it’s consent.
The support scheme, an extremely generous one, was conceived in the Parliament, one of the main proponents being Iulian Iancu, PSD deputy and chairman of the industries in the Chamber of Deputies. Furthermore, the responsibility of the negotiations with the Brussels authorities was to the Ministry of Economy, ANRE and, mainly, the Competition Council. At that time, PDL was at the lead. After several rounds of discussions and explanations, only in August 2011 the European Commission agreed to the application of Law 220 and in October 2011 the Government approved the document that allowed the application of the support scheme.
After applying this support scheme, the renewables sector began to grow stronger. Currently, has been reached an installed capacity of about 2,100 MW in wind power and about 50 MW photovoltaic units and about as much in biomass plants.
Since the new Ponta government was installed, the vision of the authorities concerning the support scheme has changed. Ever since the day he was nominated to the position of deputy minister for energy, Constantin Nita talked about the need to reduce the support scheme, the reason being the big impact on energy bills.
The influence would be 12%, on average, in households. Due to a general dissatisfaction about this influence, Nita's intention was well received among consumers, whether residential or industrial. The average consumer does not accept the idea of paying investments in so-called "green energy", only that some companies can get fast profit.
But the domestic consumer was not the deciding factor. In fact, behind the decision it was a strong lobby of large customers, such as Alro and ArcelorMittal, to reduce the number of green certificates. For ArcelorMittal is even a condition imposed by the authorities to keep their activities in Romania.
The government never explicitly recognized that it is subject to blackmail. Prime Minister Victor Ponta and Minister Varujan Vosganian said that ArcelorMittal, in general, takes into account the withdrawal from Europe. ArcelorMittal representatives are unhappy with the level of electricity prices in Europe, not only Romania, said the Prime Minister Victor Ponta. ArcelorMittal has "talked about the possibility of withdrawing from Europe", said the Premier, when asked if it is possible for the company to give up the activities in Romania.
ArcelorMittal and Alro are the same companies that have received throughout the year all kinds of advantages through bilateral contracts with cheap energy manufacturers (Hidroelectrica) in Romania.
The great development of renewables in recent years has caused discontent among classic energy producers. Both representatives of the production units of classic renewables and those of the national transmission "Transelectrica" blamed the lack of clear rules for wind energy producers, which could lead to strong imbalances in the energy system. The reason: green energy has priority entring into the national power grid. For example, if wind power production forecasts 300 MWh and realizes, in fact, 600 MWh, the plants with other energy sources must be stopped, for the entire quantity produced to be retrieved. And vice versa.
If they produce less than they expect, they immediately have to eneter in other power systems for the shortfall. In other words, the national energy system works as the wind blows. For some time, things began to change. The government and ANRE began to pay more attention to the energy produced by "inefficient", namely the thermal plants. Under the threat of protests by thousands of miners in Bucharest, authorities approved measures that allow thermal power plants priority and guaranteed access in the energy system.
• How ANRE miners negotiate the grant of new facilities for thermal power plants from CE Oltenia, while the general manager is in China
What can happen from now on
From July, 1 2013 will be applied the postponement of granting some green certificates. The immediate effect will be a reduction in the energy bill, more consistent for industrial consumers and insignificant for households. What will be the exact impact is hard to say. Even the Minister for Energy does not know precisely, which does not hinder him to advance an impressive figure for the average consumer.
"I haven’t studied the impact, but the decrease will be about 10% in the bill on July 1", he said. Probably would have been 10% if it would have dropped the whole scheme of support.
In the medium term, the effect could be even increased electricity prices for the industrial consumers. At this time, the prices on OPCOM stock are at a critically low level. The prices are the lowest in the EU. And, the final consumer has the lowest prices. According to energy.eu, in November, the prices of industrial consumers in Romania were the lowest in the EU and at the domestic consumer were the lowest after Bulgaria.
A reason for the low prices on the stock is that it has been flooded with renewable energy. Given that they receive these certificates, renewable energy producers can afford to come even with "dumping" prices, on the expense of "classic" producers as Hidroelectrica and Oltenia Energy Complex. In addition, the demand has decreased. Industrial consumers are less active in the market, some have closed down (Mechel case), others have reduced their activity.
After the postponement of granting a number of green certificates, wind energy producers may still bounce a little the market prices. Asked if we will get in a situation where "industrial consumers lose on a side what they won on the other", Nita said he expects prices to remain at the level of 40-45 Euro / MWh. Only, now, is about 37-40 euro / MWh.
Note that an increase in stock prices would benefit Hidroelectrica and Oltenia, which currently fail to conclude long-term bilateral contracts.
Another possible effect could be reduced investments in the field. Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association, for example, says that reducing renewable energy support scheme could block the investment of 4 billion euros.
• Minimum record values on the OPCOM stock: Producers are selling energy at an average price of four times lower than that for consumer appliances
Currently, the minimum value of a green certificate is 28.8 euros and the maximum value is 58.8 euros. The experience of last year shows that certificates are traded at prices close to the maximum. What does this Certificate mean? Basically, renewable energy producers receive support in the form of green certificates (GC), depending on the technology they use. However, the incentives for green energy investments are borne by all electricity consumers.
Providers are obligated by law to buy these green certificates, that can be further found on the final consumer price. Trading green certificates is independent of trading electricity, which is achieved through market mechanisms in the electricity market. Through this support scheme the final consumers support, through the increased prices of electricity, additional production costs of producers of electricity from renewable energy sources.
Among the leading players in the wind market are Czech group CEZ, Monsson Group controlled by the Muntmark family, the Portuguese group EDP Renovaveis, the Italian group Enel, the Spanish group Iberdrola, the Austrian group Verbund and many others.
The question of renewables was also put in other European countries such as Germany and Bulgaria. And they found it necessary to adopt measures to reduce the support schemes.
5 reasons why you can become an Add-Energy Renewable Romania PARTNER
To register your Company as ADD ENERGY PARTNER , please access 
For other informations click to 