The sale of green certificates stagnates close to zero, although 9.3 million units are available in the market. Although the government approved the legislation amending Law 220/2008, which should have had major effects on the market, in reality they are not seen at the expense of small renewable energy producers, PATRES officials say.

“On May 18, 2017 took place the monthly trading session on the centralized green certificates market. 26 certificates were traded whilst the number available is over 9.3 million. At the previous session in April were traded 251 units,” says Martin Moise, first vice president of the association.

“Moreover, 415,503 certificates have already been canceled this year, the total number of green certificates canceled in the last two years being 1,565,279 bills, worth over 206 million lei,” Moise said.

In this situation, without the implementation of measures to boost the centralized green certificates market (in 2016 only 0.06% of the issued certificates were traded on this market), this market will not operate efficiently and correctly, the “victims” being just the small and medium-sized producers who will not be able to sell their green certificates, the PATRES official explained.

“Practically, it becomes quite obvious that GEO 24, adopted by the Government at the end of March, has a greater role to protect large producers – integrated companies, while small and medium-sized producers are pushed for bankruptcy.”

PATRES has repeatedly signaled that the new law on changing the renewable energy framework, government emergency ordinance (GEO) 24, will not solve the problem of liquidity shortage for non-integrated producers in their current form.

“We believe that it is not right that the state should favor only large companies, provided that this state aid is paid by all consumers in Romania.”

PATRES officials said in a press release that the association will keep on calling the Chamber of Deputies’ Industry and Services Commission to adopt amendments to GEO 24 leading to increased liquidity in the centralized green certificate market and permitting the sale of certificates by all producers.

Autor: Bogdan Tudorache

Active in the economic and business press for the past 26 years, Bogdan graduated Law and then attended intensive courses in Economics and Business English. He went up to the position of editor-in-chief since 2006 and has provided management and editorial policy for numerous economic publications dedicated especially to the community of foreign investors in Romania. From 2003 to 2013 he was active mainly in the financial-banking sector. He started freelancing for Energynomics in 2013, notable for his advanced knowledge of markets, business communities and a mature editorial style, both in Romanian and English.