Overview of RES state aid scheme implementation
(Article by Mira Todorovic Symeonides, published in the Energy & Natural Resources Newsletter of the ILO on January 14, 2019)
December auctions
The second regular wind and photovoltaic (PV) state aid auction held on 10 December 2018 resulted in:
- the award of all of the capacities for two of the three categories of renewable energy system
(RES) projects; - a significant (up to 26%) reduction in the reference prices compared with the initial reference
prices; and - the cancellation of the auction for large PV projects by the Regulatory Energy Authority (RAE)
due to insufficient competition.
On 18 October 2018 the RAE launched the second regular competitive procedure for determining the reference prices of state aid for wind and solar energy producers in Greece (for further details please see “RES update – competitive procedures for FiP”). Regular competitive procedures have been organised for the following categories of RES projects:
- wind projects with a capacity between 3MW and 50MW;
- PV plants with a capacity between 500KW and 1MW (small PV projects); and
- PV plants with a capacity between 1MW and 20MW (large PV projects).
Capacities
The initial tender capacity for the second auction was a total of 423MW: 94MW for small PV projects, 100MW for big PV projects and 229MW for wind projects.
In 2018 the maximum capacity of any aid provided through regular procedures was determined to be 600MW: 300MW for PV projects and 300MW for wind projects.
In order to enhance competition, the final auctioned capacity is determined by the minimum competition level, which has been set at 75%. This means that the total capacities of all of the
participants in the competition should exceed the finally offered capacities for 75% of such offered capacities. For example, if the initial (ie, maximum) tender capacity is 94MW, while the total
capacity of all of the participants is 70MW, the RAE will finally offer for tendering only 40MW.
Download: 