In the energy market, consumers are divided into two categories: conscientious people who install solar panels on their roofs for their own consumption, and speculators who put up panels that far exceed their own consumption in order to sell energy and make a business out of it. Parliament has recently voted in favor of the latter, and the benefits and tax exemptions that should be enjoyed by those who produce their own consumption are very broad. The law is now being promulgated by President Klaus Iohannis, and the Romanian Association of Energy Suppliers (AFEER) has sent him a letter asking him to return the law to parliament.

One of the biggest problems with this law is that it violates European law, in particular the European Regulation 943/2019 on the internal energy market. The new local law provides that those with an installed capacity of up to 900 kW are exempt from the imbalance, while the European regulation says that only those with an installed capacity of up to 400 kW can benefit from this exemption.

A 900 kW PV plant is much larger than a home consumer needs for their own consumption, and may even be sufficient for a factory. For such a capacity, the required investment is one million euros.

For comparison, an installation for a house is rented on average from 3 to 15 kW (15 kW means about 80 square meters of panels).

In addition, energy suppliers say, the principle of bicameralism is violated. That is, the law passed the Senate in one form, and then was voted on in the Chamber of Deputies in a completely different form. The amendment to exempt those with up to 900kW from imbalances was introduced at the last meeting of the economic commissions in the Chamber of Deputies, on the same day as the final vote.

In general, ISPs say they will initially have to bear the costs these big prosumers create on the network, but they warn they will pass those costs on to the prices everyone will pay.

What suppliers say:

• It is a speculative, tax-free activity that benefits from tangled subsidies encouraged by legislation without regard to the technical limitations of the network. All other consumers will pay the ultimate price for all these benefits enjoyed by large consumers.

• For speculators, this is a fairy tale. They ask for money to install the panels, then pay five times more than they need and hope to make money just by looking at the sun. They already expect to pay back their investment in two years.

• Conscientious consumers are deceived by those who want to benefit from the same opportunities. The whole concept of the “prosumer” is being ridiculed.

• If this phenomenon is not synchronized with the strengthening of the network, then in a year or two we will reach a paradoxical situation when everyone will have panels, but no one will benefit from them, because this energy will not be able to be used in real time, and the system will not be able to take themselves all their production.

• The low-voltage network is not ready to take on high-power consumers. There are already concrete situations where blockages have occurred: if 5-6 houses have panels on a street in a commune around Bucharest, there are voltage fluctuations in that area and there is a danger that household appliances will be affected.

The Ministry of Energy and NARE are thinking about how to solve the situation

The article of the law, which grants these benefits to those with 900 kW installations, was introduced through an amendment voted by the economic commissions on the same day as the final vote in the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies (November 14).

The amendment was signed by Alfred Simonis, MP PSD, and Sandor Bende, MP UDMR, without any motivation.

“ANRE has submitted to parliament its observations on this law, but in its original form,” Viorel Alykus, director of the institution, said last week.

Now NARE has to develop rules for the application of this law and is analyzing how to change the regulatory act so as not to distort the market either financially or technically.

“The Ministry of Energy, in agreement with NARE, can take a legislative initiative to amend this law. We are waiting from ANRE to see the scale of the problem,” said, for his part, Energy Minister Sebastien Bourduilla.

“From my point of view, prosumers should be encouraged, but we have to ensure a fair environment. There are also situations where consumers install capacities that far exceed their own consumption, and such unfair behavior must be penalized in some way.

You can’t have ten, twenty, thirty times the power you need for your own consumption, because that means you’re benefiting from certain capabilities that you shouldn’t have. If you are a prosumer, you are not a pure producer, that is not the point of the phenomenon. Sanctions for these situations are in the interests of honest consumers together with NARE,” the minister said.

He showed that already at the level of the National Energy Service, consumers create imbalances that are difficult to manage, and the right consumers, that is, people who have installed panels for their own consumption, suffer from the big ones who do. business.

Romania currently has approximately 100,000 consumers with an installed capacity of approximately 1,300 MW (almost as much as the two Cernavoda nuclear reactors, which together have 1,400 MW).

Read also: The new prosumer law violates European legislation

A poisoned gift for consumers: how legal benefits can backfire

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