Abolition of the current fee of 5 percent on revenues from the sale of electricity for all renewable energy plants commissioned after January 1, 2021, proposes the chairman of the parliamentary energy committee Valentin Nikolov. The proposal is part of a bill amending the Energy Act, which was published for public discussion on the website of the National Committee of Bulgaria in the World Energy Council: HERE
Other significant changes include:
- Obligation for producers from RES and Co-generation with installed capacity between 1 MW and 500 kW to enter the liberalized market from 01.07.2021
- Replacing the term “Cold Reserve” with “Additional Services”
The reason for abolishing the 5% fee paid to the Security of the Electricity System Fund is that all new RES projects no longer have preferential (feed-in) tariffs. These tariffs are only valid for roof-top photovoltaic installations up to 30 kW. The new producers from renewable energy sell only at the market and their obligation to contribute to the Electricity System Security Fund 5 percent of the revenues takes away a significant financial resource.
Regarding the cold reserve, the motivation behind the change is stated in the bill: “The specificity of the proposed approach to the transactions for purchase of cold reserve is that the security of the electricity system will be provided by active generation facilities. The abolishment of the auctions for cold reserve is another step towards the introduction of a capacity mechanism.”
The proposed bill envisages all producers under Art. 162 of the Energy Act (Co-generation) and under Art. 31 (RES) of the Renewable Energy Sources Act, with the exception of small installations under 500 kW, to offer the electricity produced at the liberalized market. According to the MPs, this will provide additional quantities of electricity, but according to the latest price decision of the Regulator, these quantities will be minimal in the amount of approximately 210 GWh (about 0.5% of electricity production in the country).
The proposed Bill amending the Energy Act is available at: http://www.wec-bulgaria.org/download_file/view/174/
Source: National Committee of Bulgaria for the World Energy Council, Mediapool