An Order published in the 6 September issue of the Official Journal (in RO) approves the general framework entitled “Initiation of the first tender for the State aid scheme in the form of contracts for the difference for the production of electricity from renewable sources of onshore wind and solar photovoltaic energy”. This covers two procedures, one for installed capacities totalling 1,000 MW of onshore wind energy at a maximum strike price of 82 €/MWh, and another for installed capacities totalling 500 MW of photovoltaic energy at a maximum strike price of 78 €/MWh.
The target commissioning date shall not exceed 36 months from the anticipated date of signature of the CfD contract.
The Ministry of Energy and the operator of the CfD scheme, Transelectrica, will communicate on their websites the deadline for submitting applications for funding.
Annex no. 1 of the Order published in the Official Journal lists the documents to be provided by the applicants, as well as the amount of the participation guarantee – the equivalent in RON of 20,000 Euro per MW of installed capacity of the project, calculated at the exchange rate of the National Bank of Romania.
Successful applicants or special purpose investment vehicles are required to provide a performance guarantee in the RON equivalent of 75,000 Euro per MW for the installed capacity of the project.
The tender evaluation process will be conducted in two stages, one to evaluate the applicant’s technical offer (on a pass/fail basis against the eligibility criteria) and a second to evaluate the applicant’s financial offer (in ascending order of exercise price for qualified applicants). The successful applicant has the obligation to provide a Technical Connection Notice within a maximum of 6 months from the signature of the CfD contract.
Annex 2 includes the Call for Proposals and the key elements of the CfD scheme and the Contract for Difference to be concluded with the selected eligible applicants. The duration of the operating aid is a maximum of 15 years from the date of commencement of payment, power generators are obliged to market the energy production covered by the CfD contract only on organised electricity markets. When the electricity reference price is lower than the strike price, the CfD beneficiary will receive an additional payment for the difference. When the reference price is higher than the strike price, the beneficiary pays the difference to the CfD Counterparty. Power generators have the option to sell part of the power generated, which is covered by the CfD, through bilateral contracts concluded on the Organised Power Markets. In this particular situation, a profit-sharing mechanism will be applicable.
Negative prices
CfD payments will be made for each MWh of electricity generated and delivered to the grid through the dedicated meter for the allocated CfD capacity, except for the quantities of electricity that have been delivered to the grid in settlement intervals where negative prices have been recorded.
The Reference Price means the weighted average of the prices (Euro/MWh) on any day-ahead market (PZU) operated by any operator of the Romanian electricity market, where the weighting is carried out with the volumes traded on each such market by CfD beneficiaries using the same technology, being calculated and set by ANRE, for each monthly billing period, in accordance with the formula set out in the CfD contract and with the methodology to be developed and approved by ANRE for this purpose.
Rules for deciding
For each tender, the Ministry of Energy sets a maximum total capacity (“Maximum Total Capacity”) corresponding to 110 per cent of the total target capacity envisaged. If the aggregate capacity of the bids ranked above the marginal bid (inclusive) is equal to or less than the maximum total capacity, the marginal bid will be automatically accepted by the Evaluation Commission; if the aggregate capacity of the accepted bids, including the marginal bid, is more than 110% of the total capacity of the tender, the marginal bid will be automatically rejected by the Evaluation Commission.
In the event of a tie between two or more financial bids according to the exercise price, which cumulatively exceed the total target capacity in the respective auction, the CfD scheme operator will, in the first instance, give priority to the bids including the ATR. If it is not possible to distinguish in this way, Transelectrica will give priority to the bid with the highest capacity and then give priority to the bid submitted earliest.
For a qualified applicant or qualified affiliated applicant the ranking of financial offers will be in ascending order by reference to the exercise price offered. A bid may be ranked higher/lower than another bid if its exercise price is lower respectively higher than the exercise price of another bid.