Romania will seek the European Commission’s approval for prolonging the current scheme for promoting high-efficiency cogeneration for another 11 years, said Head of the National Regulatory Authority for Energy (ANRE) Zoltan Nagy-Bege.
The fee, already in force for a decade, resulted in no new high-efficiency cogeneration unit, as intended under the very logic of the supplementary fee.
Under the existing scheme, the end-users pay a fee of 0.34 eurocents/kWh, which represents some 5 to 6 % of the production price of electricity, or one-quarter of the fee paid to subsidize producers of electricity from renewable energy sources. However, although this scheme is in effect for almost a decade, it resulted in no new high-efficiency cogeneration units being built during that time.
The funds collected were supposed to be used for subsidizing producers of heat and electricity which use efficient production technologies. However, the funds were used by traditional heat and electricity producers to cover ongoing expenses. In order to spur investment in new cogeneration facilities, ANRE is planning to review current support scheme and maybe introduce a new one.
