The first beneficiaries of the Prosuming Law could be the natural and / or legal persons owning electricity generating plants from renewable energy sources with installed electrical power of less than 27 kW on one place of consumption already put into operation before the date of publication of the ANRE Order in the Official Gazette of Romania. For them, ANRE’s draft order, which was launched in public debate on Monday, November 19, for 10 days, forces the distribution operators to install a smart meter or a system with remote reading within 90 days of entering force of regulation.

ANRE intends the Order to enter into force on January 1, 2019. The project under discussion does not make any reference to potential competition issues that could prevent the application of such support measures and which have been invoked in recent public positions. Unofficial sources claim that the European Commission’s response to this issue was favorable, in the sense that the scheme would fall within the concept of de minimis aid, which can be implemented relatively quickly.

In order to receive money for the energy injected into the network, the prosumers must simultaneously meet several conditions:

• The main activity of the legal person is not power generation
• the installed capacity of the power plant is up to 27 kW per consumption place
• electricity is used to cover the consumer’s own electricity consumption
• the system includes either smart meters or at least with meters that allow remote reading

Bureaucracy is reduced as, for the purpose of certifying the status of prosumer, it is sufficient for the interested owners to pass on information to the distribution operators about the energy meters installed in the system and about their characteristics. If all documents comply, then the distribution operator issues the connection certificate for the place of consumption and production. Distributors are required to issue the connection certificate within a maximum of 30 days. On the basis of the connection certificate, the prosumers will ask their power supplier to conclude a contract for power sale-purchase.

Regularization will be done monthly, on the invoice, with the – (minus) sign for the volume of energy injected and multiplied by the average price recorded on DAM in the previous year, no VAT added. If the prosumer has to receive money, they will be reported over to the next regularization invoice. The report may be made for a maximum of 12 months, after which the remaining amount will be paid to the customer by the electricity supplier within 15 days from the date of issue of the invoice. For natural persons alone, if the value exceeds 100 lei, it will not be reported and it will be paid to the prosumer by the supplier within 15 days from the invoice date.

For new entrants to the renewable power generation market, including the prospective beneficiaries of the AFM support scheme, the obstacles imposed by the need to obtain building permits remain.

The fastest way to benefit from the electricity injected into the grid lays with the existing prosumers with up to 27 kW generation capacity on the place of consumption, natural or legal persons. The beneficiaries of the Green Certificates Promotion System can also give up on this, in order to sell their excess electricity delivered into the grid.