Latest data provided by LAGIE, Electricity Market Operator, indicates that the renewable energy sources (RES) special account deficit will be eliminated about one year later than had been anticipated, the new date being the end of next year.

The miscalculation may create further problems for troubled RES producers, especially in the photovoltaic sector, who are being forced to endure major payment delays for production already delivered. Payments to RES producers are currently four months behind schedule.

Officials had forecast the special account deficit would be eliminated by the end of this year, or early in 2015, based on the revisions of new harsh measures for the RES sector through the “new deal”, a set of measures aiming to offer a long-term solution for the deficit problem at LAGIE.

The misjudgement has been attributed to a number of factors, including reduced revenues from the sale of CO2 emission rights, lower electricity consumption, and, subsequently, reduced amounts received from an Emission Reduction Tariff (ETMEAR) imposed as a surcharge on electricity bills.

The misjudgement on the elimination of the (RES) special account deficit, a demand set by the country’s creditor representatives, or troika, is likely to prompt a troika reaction.

In other RES sector developments, the level of RES installments remained unchanged in October without a single new MW added to the interconnected system.

At present, installed windpark facilities amount to 1,595 MW, photovoltaic systems  at 2,079 MW, roof-mounted photovoltaic systems at 374 MW, biomass systems at 47 MW, small hydropower plants at 220 MW, and combined heat and power (CHP) capacity at 229 MW.