Photovoltaics: The changes in their installation – fast track procedures –

With less bureaucracy, photovoltaic systems will be installed, with or without energy storage batteries, in existing industrial, commercial, office buildings, etc., as well as in future man-made structures.

In particular, on their roof or roof, as well as on canopies, terraces, balconies, pergolas, facades and sunshades, solar systems can be installed with the possibility of adding accumulators without requiring a producer certificate from the Waste, Energy and Water Regulatory Authority (RAAEF ) as it applies today and without following the environmental licensing process.

Thus, businesses will henceforth be able to apply directly to the relevant Operator to receive a Final Connection Offer for connection to the electricity network within three months. This is one of the arrangements added after the consultation of the Ministry of Environment and Energy’s multi-bill, which was introduced to Parliament for debate and vote.

They lose their “tariff” as many RES … are renewed

Also included in the new provisions added are changes to “green” projects being renovated. In particular, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and High-Efficiency Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Stations which from October 31 onwards undergo a radical renewal of their infrastructure should operate within the framework of the market, i.e. participate directly in the Energy Exchange .

In other words, they will lose the “tariff” (operational support) they receive today after submitting an application for renewal of the Certificate or Production License to the ERA or an application for a new Final Connection Offer to the Administrator. However, a small backlog remains unsettled. While for wind farms there is a definition of what radical renewal means, there is no corresponding definition for photovoltaic plants.

Today, the following is provided for RES that are renewed: if the extra energy produced by the “renovated” project is up to 5% above the maximum production of the first five years, then the investor receives the set tariff while the extra production is sold through the Stock Exchange.

Up to 600 MW for batteries behind the meter

Furthermore, photovoltaic stations that have either been put into operation after July 4, 2019 and until October 31, 2024, or new stations that have received a Final Connection Offer will be able to change the terms of connection to the network or system through a fast track process and add batteries.

These stations will be able to inject into the grid in the evening hours of the day energy from the storage units and will be compensated based on the prices of the electricity markets. A provision was added to the draft law that proposes that the photovoltaic stations that will add a battery behind the meter (behind the meter) should not exceed a total power of 600 MW (megawatts) divided into 300 MW for the RES stations connected to the electricity distribution network energy (DEDDIE) and 300 MW for those connected to the Hellenic Electricity Transmission System (ADMIE).

Self-production only with net-billing

Regarding the new way of self-production of energy, the so-called net-billing, from the end of October, when the bill is expected to have been passed and published in the Official Gazette, the competent Administrators will grant Final Connection Offers or Connection Contracts for self-consumption exclusively with synchronized and virtual simultaneous netting, i.e. only net billing and virtual net billing.

Also, the new regulations suggest that old self-consumers who retain the right to net-metering will lose it if they decide to give up the possibility of selling energy to the grid in order to use all the generated electricity for self-consumption and automatically switch to net-billing and in virtual net-billing. Also, with the new regulations, the priority for connecting to the DEDDIE network for net-billing systems is promoted.

Return and warranty discounts and small wind turbines

The new arrangements stipulate that all RES stations (not only those located in the Non-Interconnected Islands, as the consultation text provided), which have received a Final Connection Offer and stations that have submitted a request for connection conditions and are pending, gain the ability to get back the letters of guarantee they have submitted in exchange for their licenses to be terminated, freeing up physical and electrical space.

The remaining owners of RES and Hybrid stations who wish to remain in the “game” and have submitted a guarantee letter to the competent Administrator will be able, from October 31, 2024, to replace it and submit a new one, which corresponds to 30% or 15% of initial, depending on the category to which the project belongs.

Regarding small wind turbines up to 60 kW, it specifies two categories (while in the original text there was only one) predicting that those under 30 meters will receive a high tariff, i.e. 157 euros/MWh and the larger ones a lower tariff at 110 euros/MWh.