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Bulgaria decreases FiT reference prices for solar plants

Bulgaria
05/07/2024
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On 30 June 2024, the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) published a Decision regarding the determination of Feed-In Tariffs (FiTs) for electricity produced by renewable energy sources, which updates FiTs to include electricity produced by biomass and determines the premiums for renewable energy producers with an overall installed capacity of 500 kW and exceeding 500 kW for the regulatory period 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. The EWRC has determined the estimated market price (i.e. reference price) for producers of electricity from solar energy to be BGN 141.49//MWh. 

Based on the reference price, this Decision enables the EWRC to determine the premiums that producers receive from the Electricity System Security Fund (ESSF) as a top-up up to the respective FiT. The determined reference price for solar producers for the new regulatory period is a concern to investors since for the first half of 2024 the realised price from solar energy producers has been between BGN 105/MWh and BGN 110/MWh. 

Before the Decision and within the current legal framework, the only statutory mechanism that the EWRC possesses following the legislative changes of October 2023 has been its obligation to amend the determined premiums, but this could be done no more than once in six months, provided that there was a significant change in the electricity exchange market between the specified estimated market price for the base load for this period and the achieved price for the remainder of the period. 

In addition, the EWRC determined higher grid access prices of BGN 6.15 for Renewable Energy Sources (RES) producers from solar and wind. (In the previous regulatory period, grid prices were BGN 4.86). The argument for such an increase is that production is from RES power plants. Hence, any deviation in the meteorological conditions may make it necessary to secure additional capacity for the transmission-system operator to acquire the hourly and daily capacity in the electricity grid. 

For more information on regulations in the renewable energy electricity sector in Bulgaria, contact your CMS client partner or these CMS experts.  

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