Feed-in-Premium tariff for RES may be primarily of interest to bioenergy enterprises – BAU head
KYIV. Sept 16 (Energy Reform) - The Feed-in-Premium tariff system for producers of "green" electricity will be of interest primarily to bioenergy enterprises, but the Ministry of Energy's bill on this system needs to be improved, Heorhiy Heletukha, the head of the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine (BAU), says.
"In general, we see a prospect in this bill. Perhaps even it is interesting primarily for bioenergy. Therefore, the first step towards the transition to this tariff is to leave the balancing group of Guaranteed Buyer. And it will be easier for bioenergy companies to do this by comparison with solar and wind power generation, because we are more stable," he said at a press conference entitled "Green Tasks for Parliament" at the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
According to him, this bill could have been very relevant a year ago, when there was a low level of settlements with "green" generation, from which bioenergy suffered to a greater extent, feeling an acute shortage of funds for the purchase of raw materials.
At the same time, Heletukha noted that the enterprises of the association as a whole support the bill, but "there are several points that were not pleasant".
"For example, the basic bill stipulates that auctions will give a contract for 20 years. In this bill, if you won the auction, and after that you want to go for contracts for difference, then the term is already 15 years. I think that this is somewhat incorrect - five years have been lost somewhere," the association head noted, adding that the association sent its proposals, including technical amendments, to the ministry.
In turn, the head of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association, Andriy Konechenkov, also supported the bill, but noted the presence of several risks in it.
"If a company left the Guaranteed Buyer balancing group, but it did not manage to sell as it wanted, then it can go back. But this is not spelled out in the bill," he noted.
He also said that in fact the bill concerns large companies.
"Both wind and solar power plants are responsible for imbalances. But if a small company leaves the Guaranteed Buyer balancing group, it will not be able to answer for them, they will cost much more than the cost of electricity that the company can sell," Konechenkov said.
According to him, it is necessary to continue the discussion on the draft law in order to regulate its norms as much as possible.