site.bta Green Certificates, Energy Aid for Poor Households Should Be Introduced Urgently - Expert
Green Certificates, Energy Aid for Poor Households Should Be Introduced Urgently - Expert
Sofia, April 28 (BTA) - The liberalization of the market and the
scrapping of regulated prices for household consumers will lead
to a 15-20 per cent rise of power prices and the most important
issue now is to find a solution how to support households
financially, Ivan Hinovski, energy expert and adviser of the
parliamentary committee responsible for the supervision of the
Energy and Water Regulation Committee (EWRC) told BTA Monday.
When state-owned enterprises like Kozloduy N-plant and Maritza
East 2 TPP, which now produce the cheapest energy in the mix on
the regulated market, come out on the free market they will
begin selling at the average market price, which is higher. This
means the end price for households will be higher, Hinovski
said.
In addition, the actions involving extending the operational
life of Kozloduy's Unit 5 are bordering on the deadline and it
may turn out that additional analyses and tests should be made,
which may nearly double the cost. This will also mean the price
of electricity from the plant will be increased.
One way or another, the market will be liberalized, the exchange
will become operational very soon, but the main issue is how to
help Bulgarian households so that they would not feel the
change in electricity prices.
The first step are measures to draft a new categorization of
socially weak households and expand the scope. There are funds
under European programmes but such steps have not been
undertaken yet, he commented.
It is also very important to introduce green certificates, which
are tradable instruments on the Western markets, according to
Hinovski. These documents certify that the RES plants have
generated the certain amount of energy and that energy can be
traded as "green" on the big energy markets in Europe. This is a
more advanced mechanism compared to the purchase of energy from
RES plants at preferential prices and the introduction of green
certificates is recommended by the European Commission.
This mechanism is very important for household consumers because
the preferential prices are paid by them, while the green
certificates - by the international markets. The expert noted,
however, that legislative changes are needed for the
introduction of these certificates.
One problem with the higher price of the two US-owned AES
Maritza East 1 TPP and ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 TPP is that
they should just be given a chance to export their electricity,
Hinovski continued. Yet, under the effective agreement signed
with the National Electric Company (NEK) they do not have the
right to export their produce.
Hinovski identified another problem: NEK interprets erroneously
the change in the Energy Act providing that NEK is obliged to
purchase RES energy only up to the limit, set by EWRC. However,
NEK counts the EWRC-set hours as calendar and not as working
hours. The regulator has been petitioned to pronounce itself on
the issue but even if it decides in favour of NEK, the RES
producers will initiate proceedings and will probably win them,
said Hinovski. Therefore, it is not clear what amount will be
economized by NEK due to this change but it will be less than
100 million leva, he added.
Regardless of the measures taken, NEK keeps on accumulating
deficit, Hinovski said. In his opinion the rescue plan includes
restructuring of NED, establishment of a fund for reforms and
imposing of economies on all state energy companies.
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