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The members of the Association of Big Industrial Energy Consumers (ABIEC) salute the decision of the European Commission (EC) to approve the reduction of green certificate for energy-intensive users and ABIEC underlines the urgency to implement this decision starting 2014 – in line with the scheme adopted and approved this year both by the Romanian government and by the EC – thus preserving the Romanian industry and offering the basis to compete in the European and international context from equal position with similar companies.
“We welcome the approval of the EC and we underline the vital importance of the Government Decision that balances the overcompensated scheme for green certificates”, said Marian Nastase, the President of ABIEC. “The Commission acknowledged the Government move to partially compensate the significant financial burden represented by subsidies for renewable energy, in order to ensure the future of the Romanian industry”, ads Nastase.
The measures to reduce the impact of the support scheme for the renewable energy is a vital step to support the Romanian industry, which creates added value and is responsible for approximately 1.5 million work places.
“The approval of the Romanian exemption scheme proves once again not only the professionalism of the proposal, but also the need to implement the scheme in 2014 – as approved this month by the EC – importance acknowledged by the Romanian authorities, as well as by the European Commission. In this respect, we express our belief that the application of the GD starting 2014 would allow us to operate in Romania, and we hope that this measure to balance an overgenerous subsidy scheme will not be diluted via future administrative or bureaucratic measures”, says Nastase.
The Government Decision (GD) regarding the decrease of the impact of the support scheme for the renewable industry comes to transpose the Guidelines adopted by the European Commission regarding the public support for projects in the field of environmental protection and energy for the period 2014-2020.
About the exemption scheme
The guidelines provide criteria on how Member States, Romania included, can relieve energy intensive companies from burdening charges resulting from the support schemes of renewables.
The EC recommends that the energy intensive companies are granted an exemption of 85% from green certificates charges. EC allows Member States the possibility to further limit the amount to 4% of the Gross Value Added based on the proportionality principle of the aid. Moreover, this level can be lowered to 0.5, for undertakings that have a electro-intensity of at least 20%.
Romania decided to reduce the contribution to the financing of renewable energy for certain companies active in sectors with particularly high electro-intensity and trade exposure. The beneficiaries will pay 85%, 60% or 40% less RES support if they demonstrate an electro-intensity of more than 20%, between 10% and 20%, or between 5% and 10%, respectively.
The support scheme for the renewable energy is the main reason why the costs with the energy increased at an unbearable level for the industrial consumers in Romania. The uncontrolled increase of the subsidies for the renewable energy led to an increase in overall taxes paid by all consumers (which includes, besides the price of electricity, the cost with the green certificates, the cogeneration and the transport fee) from 67 lei/MWh in 2012, to 88 lei/MWh in 2013, meaning a 30% increase.
