New RES special account data and forecasts expected to be released this week by LAGIE, the Electricity Market Operator, will serve as a guidline for revision decisions concerning an ETMEAR surcharge included on electricity bills as well as a supplier surcharge imposed on suppliers. Both tools are used to fund the RES special account.

RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, needs to make ETMEAR adjustments revisions by the end of the year, but the data required to reach any decisions remains unclear.

Though the time pressure is mounting, RAE has yet to receive any instructions on the matter, according to energy press sources.

The government, in the latest set of bailout revisions, has agreed to a demand made by the country’s lenders for a reduction to the supplier surcharge, fed entirely into the RES special account. Any decision on this front will impact the ETMEAR amounts that need to be generated.

The time remaining for the needed changes does not allow for the matter to be handled through a legislative procedure. As a result, the ministry is expected to act through a binding document to be forwarded to RAE. This procedure has been resorted to in the past for similar situations.

Based on the revised bailout’s terms, the government has until March, 2018 to reduce the supplier surcharge by an amount that is equivalent to the RES special account’s surplus forecast for 2018.

This leaves open the prospect of an ETMEAR reduction but sources have informed that the energy minister Giorgos Stathakis intends to keep this surcharge unchanged.

According to LAGIE’s most recent bulletin, the RES special account’s surplus in 2018 is forecast to reach 237 million euros if no ETMEAR revisions are made. If pending RES sector payments, totaling approximately 100 million euros, are deducted, then the surplus will end up being about 137 million euros.