The Chamber of Deputies voted a new law on prosumers, that is, those who produce energy for their own consumption, trading surpluses. The new law must be sent to the President of Romania for promulgation. Thousands of people who install photovoltaic panels on their houses and want to sell the excess energy produced are most interested in the new provisions.

See here the document with the new changes to the Energy Law for consumers.

The prosumer will be able to store energy

One of the provisions concerns a change in the definition of a consumer, adding, among other things, the activity of electricity storage.

What a prosumer can do:

a) can store and sell the produced or stored electricity to the electricity supplier with whom he has entered into an electricity supply contract and/or to consumers connected to the busbars of the power plant;

b) can financially compensate the surplus of electricity produced and delivered to the place of production and consumption with electricity consumed from the network for other places of consumption and/or places of its production and consumption:

• if the supply service for the respective places of consumption and/or places of production and consumption is provided by the same electricity supplier;
• if the places of consumption and/or the places of production and consumption are connected to the electric network of one electricity distribution operator, provided that the production of electric energy is not the main commercial or professional activity;”

Increases the limit for quantitative compensation

Quantitative compensation is a process by which the energy supplier indicates in the bill/invoices issued to the customer who owns power plants with an installed electrical capacity of no more than 400 kW per point of consumption, the amount of electricity consumed from the prosumer network, with the price of active electricity of energy stipulated in the contract for the supply of electric energy concluded between the supplier and the prosumer.

To this are added the legally established tariffs and taxes and the amount of electricity produced and delivered by the consumer at a price equal to the price of active electricity, without taxes and tariffs, the difference is billed monthly.

Previously, the limit was 200 kW.

Consumers who own installations for the production of electricity from renewable sources with an installed capacity of no more than 400 kW per point of consumption can choose a compensation mechanism for a period of at least 6 months.

Quantitative compensation for consumers with installations with a capacity of up to 400 kW will be provided until December 31, 2030 in the context of measures and actions to achieve the obligations regarding the share of energy from renewable sources in 2030, defined in the National Energy and Climate Change Plan in accordance with the ANRE methodology.

Increases the limit for which imbalances are not paid

Balancing responsibility does not apply to consumers with an established power generation capacity of less than 900 kW. Balancing is the responsibility of their supplier, according to ANRE rules.

Previously, the limit was 400 kW.

Consumers, natural and legal persons, as well as local self-government bodies, who own installations for the production of electricity from renewable sources with an installed capacity of no more than 900 kW per point of consumption, may sell the generated or stored electricity to electricity suppliers with whom they have entered into agreements on electricity supply, in accordance with NARE regulations, as well as to consumers connected to the busbars of the power plant.

Local public authorities that have the opportunity to generate electricity from renewable sources, partly or entirely at the expense of public funds, benefit from the suppliers with whom they have a contract for the supply of electricity, on request, from the service of financial regulation between the energy supplied and the energy that consumed from the network.

At the request of consumers who produce electrical energy in electrical installations with an installed capacity of no more than 400 kW per point of consumption and with whom contracts for the supply of electrical energy are/were concluded, electricity suppliers are obliged to:

• a) carry out quantitative compensation between the released electricity and the electricity consumed by them from the electric network in the calculation period, in accordance with the special methodology of NARE;
• b) make calculations on the amount of electric energy in the process of quantitative compensation using the price of active electric energy provided for in the contract on the supply of electric energy concluded between the supplier and the consumer;

Within 60 days from the date of entry into force of this law, the head of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) will make changes and additions to the Methodology for establishing rules for the sale of electricity produced at power plants from renewable sources with an installed electric capacity of no more than 400 kW per point of consumption, owned by prosumers .