The board at RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, has decided to leave unchanged the RES-supporting ETMEAR surcharge levels for all consumer categories, authority officials informed journalists late last night, responding to related questions.
This essentially means that measures already taken by the energy ministry, especially an extra charge imposed on electricity suppliers, as well as the increased percentage of carbon emission right auction revenues to be channeled into the RES special account, are considered sufficient to eliminate the account’s deficit by the end of 2017, as is required by the bailout.
The lenders have requested RAE to review the progress made on the RES special account’s deficit every three months. If a lack of improvement is detected, then the ETMEAR surcharge appearing on electricity bills, a key source of revenue for the RES special account, will need to be revised accordingly.
Prior to last night’s update by RAE officials, energy-intensive industries – all high-voltage operations and medium-voltage operations consuming over 13 GWh a year – were expected to be subjected to a mild ETMEAR surcharge increase while household consumers were expected to see their contribution drop slightly.