First joint wind and solar competitive tender procedures in April and May 2019
(Article by Mira Todorovic Symeonides – Partner and Nikoleta Nikolaou – Associate, published in the Energy & Natural Resources Newsletter of the ILO on April 1, 2019)
Introduction
In April and May 2019 solar and wind renewable energy systems (RES) producers will compete for
the first time for operating state aid and a place in the Greek energy market in a joint competitive
tender procedure organised by the Energy Regulatory Authority (RAE). The operating state aid
granted as feed-in premiums (FiPs) – which are essentially contracts for difference or, in exceptional
cases, feed-in tariffs (FiTs) to be determined either by legal act or on a per-project basis based on
competitive bidding procedures – was introduced for the first time by Law 4414/2016. FiPs are
calculated as the difference between the special market price and the applicable reference price,
which is either regulated or based on a competitive bidding procedure. The RES generators
participate in the electricity markets as any other electricity producer. However, if the special
market price is below the agreed reference price, they will also receive a premium to cover the
difference. In turn, if the special market price is above the agreed reference price, the generator
must refund the excess to the special account.
Until now, the RAE organised two pilot procedures for photovoltaics (PV) producers in 2016 and
2017 and two separate regular competitive procedures in July and October 2018 for wind and PV
units competing in the following categories:
wind projects with a capacity between 3 megawatts (MW) and 50MW;
PV plants with a capacity between 500 kilowatts (kW) and 1MW (small PV projects); and
PV plants with a capacity between 1MW and 20MW (large PV projects).
However, in December 2018 the RAE cancelled the auction and its results for large PV plants in
order to protect the public interest and competition (for further details please see “Overview of RES
state aid scheme implementation”).
On 28 February 2019 the RAE launched an invitation to participate in this first joint solar and wind
competitive procedure by issuing Decision 230/2019 (OJ B’ 656/2019) and offering state aid for
600MW (400MW were planned for 2018 and half of the quantities for 2019).
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