According to Energy Minister Sébastien Bourdouis, consumers who install PV capacity in excess of their own consumption are doing so incorrectly and should not benefit from the benefits established by law for consumers. He says he has agreed with his environmental colleague Mircea Feshet that the next Green House program will include funds to purchase photovoltaic batteries.

“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. It is in the interests of honest consumers to authorize these situations together with ANRE,” said the minister during a debate organized by EFdeN.

Conservation is the most important aspect here, he added.

Casa Verde will have a budget for batteries to store energy

“We agreed together with the Minister of the Environment, Mircea Feshet, that the next Casa Verde programs should include a storage component. Storage in batteries is expensive and unsupported is not profitable for prosumers,” Burduya showed.

The private sector will have €500 million from the Modernization Fund for Storage.

Burduja also said that at the level of the National Energy Service, consumers create imbalances that are difficult to manage.

So already the right prosumers, that is, people who have installed panels for their own consumption, are suffering from the big ones who are making a business out of it.

According to Viorel Alikus, director of ANRE, the average power of a natural person-consumer for own consumption is 5 kW.

The Energy Act has recently been amended so that even very large consumers, up to 900 kW, are exempt from grid imbalance charges.

Burduzh was asked by journalists if this is correct.

“It’s a good question, but not an easy one. The Ministry of Energy, in agreement with ANRE, may intervene with a legislative initiative to amend this law. We are waiting for NARE to see the extent of the problem,” said the minister.

Also read “A poisoned gift for prosumers”: how the benefits of the law can backfire