PV Stegi

Net-billing seen replacing net-metering following EC reaction

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The energy ministry is believed to be considering to abolish net-metering for self-production and replace it with a net-billing formula following objections raised by the European Commission, promoting the latter approach as most appropriate for self-consumption.

Greece’s ongoing PV support program subsidizes further penetration of net-metering systems in the domestic sector.

The energy ministry, currently examining market details in order to decide on how to react to the Commission’s criticism of the country’s support plan, is likely to abolish net-metering imminently and instead extend net-billing to domestic self-consumption systems with a production capacity of up to 10 KW, as well as commercial and agricultural PVs with capacities of up to 100 KW.

Should this direction be taken, the ongoing PV Stegi support program for roof-mounted PVs will soon be discontinued, March 31 believed to be a date under consideration. It would be followed by the announcement of a corresponding support program based on a net-billing formula.

Both net-metering and net-billing compensate solar-system owners for transferring electricity to the grid when their panels overproduce, but the ways the two systems compensate differs.

Net metering credits equal the retail electricity rate paid by customers for electricity. On the contrary, net billing credits equal the wholesale rate electricity companies pay for electricity.

Brussels has taken the side of protesting suppliers, including in Greece, as, under the net-metering formula, energy offsetting is essentially being conducted at their expense given that excess generation is injected into the grid at nighttime hours of low wholesale prices, well below higher energy prices in the evening hours, when customers meet most their energy needs.

PVs through support program reach 2,000, 8,700 to follow

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Some 2,000 roof-mounted solar panels representing a capacity of 12 MW have been installed through the government’s subsidy support program, dubbed PV Stegi, and are operating, while a further 8,700 such systems, totaling 60 MW, are expected to follow in the coming months, once their investors have signed agreements with RES market operator DAPEEP, energypress sources have informed.

It is estimated that these projects will absorb roughly 50 percent of the subsidy support program’s budget of 230 million euros.

Though these figures do highlight the market’s interest in the support program, they also illustrate that the program, launched nearly ten months ago, has moved along at a slower-than-expected pace.

Delays in the provision of subsidies to applicants are the main reason behind this slowness. progress. Interested parties are being forced to provide initial amounts of own capital for their roof-mounted solar panel installations and to then wait, for unspecified periods of time, to receive the subsidy support they are entitled to.

Self-production is flourishing in Greece and, according to latest projections made by SEF, the Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (HELAPCO), is set to surpass last year’s record-breaking performance of 250 MW, which resulted in a capacity increase for the sector of over 100 percent. More PV systems were installed last year, alone, than in all previous years, combined.

SEF has projected PV installations this year will reach approximately 300 MW, of which 60 MW will be developed through the PV Stegi subsidy support program.