On the 28.04.2013, the Greek Parliament voted a new draft law on RES after a long period of public consultations.
As repeatedly mentioned in the text, the main target is to provide access to the system only to mature projects, given that there is a significant disproportion between the applications for connection terms offer and the progress/ readiness of projects. The new provisions put significant financial burdens so that the electricity space is shared only among the projects with credible perspective of materialization. Some of the main provisions are following.
To begin with, the Connection Terms Offer shall be valid only for 3 years, instead of 4 so as to accelerate the projects’ progress. Moreover, beginning from May 1st 2014, the project company is obliged to bring a letter of guarantee when accepts the connection terms offer. If the conditions set in the law are not met then a forfeiture of the letter of guarantee shall take place in favor of RES Special Account. There are relevant provisions regarding binding connection terms offer before May 1st 2014. Moreover, Producers shall be obliged from 01.01.2014 and dependently on the time they have obtained a Production License to pay a 1.000€ fee per year in favor of RES Special Account.
At the same time, although acceleration of the proceedings is requested, the law enacts suspension of all connection works and power purchase agreements for PV Parks until December 31st 2013, except for companies that have submitted a complete file for PPA. This measure targets to reduce the deficit of RES Special Account which increases. For the same reason, a new obligation for PV special levy is imposed. The special levy shall apply to stations either entering to trial operation period or activating the grid connection during 2013, as well as PPAs. It reaches 37 and 34% respectively on the price of the purchase of electricity from the January 1st to June 30th 2013 as well as 42 and 40% after July 1st 2013.
It remains to be seen how the market shall react to the previous while more changes are also expected the next few months.