The Romanian government said it decided on Tuesday to temporarily suspend as of
July 1 the issuance of some of the green certificates for which hydro, wind and
solar energy producers are eligible in a bid to reduce the price of electricity
for final consumers.
The government said in a statement it passed an
emergency ordinance stating that the number of green certificates awarded for
one megawatt-hour (MWh) produced by hydro power plants with capacity of up to 10
megawatts will be cut by one.
Under the current support scheme, hydro
power producers receive three green certificates per MWh.
For every MWh
of solar power the state will award four green certificates instead of six and
for wind energy the number of certificates will be cut to one from
two.
The deferred certificates will be clawed back starting from March
31, 2017, for hydro and solar power producers and from January 1, 2018, for wind
energy producers.
Energy distributors in Romania are required to purchase
green certificates for every MWh of power they sell. The certificates are issued
to wind, hydro and solar power producers who can sell them directly to
distributors or trade them on the state-owned power market, OPCOM. The
distributors then pass on the cost of buying the certificates to their
customers.