The government appears to be preparing to reduce tariffs for payment of electricity produced at photovoltaic parks with excessive output, compared to their installed capacities, to help balance the renewable energy sources (RES) special account.

This initiative has been included in a wider plan to confront various problems running through the country’s RES chain.

LAGIE, the Electricity Market Operator, has forecast the RES special account’s deficit will reach 190.64 million euros by the end of this year. The country’s lenders are demanding that the account’s deficit be eliminated. Otherwise, the RES-supporting ETMEAR surcharge included in electricity bills will need to be increased.

The news of this tariff intervention – essentially the first since tariffs were drastically cut as part of the so-called new deal, intended to put the RES sector in shape – will not affect most photovoltaic investments around Greece. It will concern PV installations in areas such as as the islands and southern Greece with major output and high returns on investment.

According to reliable sources, the reasoning behind the prospective tariff intervention is linked to terms offered through the new deal that were based on certain assumptions concerning factors such as installation costs and anticipated electricity production. Some PV fparks are producing far greater amounts of electricity due to their geographical positions or technology used.

Despite the new deal’s implementation, the RES special account’s deficit problem has not been resolved.

According to LAGIE, the fall in international price levels for CO2 emission rights has severly affected the RES special account’s revenues. CO2 emission rights represent a key source of revenue for the RES special account. The operator anticipates an annual revenue decrease of roughly 150 million euros from this source.

Other factors that have negatively impacted the RES special account include the reduced demand for electricity as a result of the recession, institutional framework revisions that have lowered the System Marginal Price (SMP), a RAE (Regulatory Authority for Energy) decision in December to slightly lower the ETMEAR surcharge on electricity bills, and the marginal RES capacity increase.