ANRE Order no. 43/2011 approving the Regulation on issue of green certificates (GC) – published in the Official Gazette no. 768/1 November 2011 – “the Regulation”)

The Regulation lays down the rules and procedures for the issue by GC to E-RES producers. Below are the main provisions of the Regulation.

Purpose

The purpose of the Regulation is to establish (i) the method for computing the amount of E-RES which shall benefit from the promotion system provided by Law 220/2008, (ii) the method for issue of GC and (iii) the parties involved in this process.

Conditions for Issue of GC

Obligations

Transport operators (e.g. Transelectrica) issue GCs to E-RES producers accredited by ANRE (“Producers”).

The Producers have, inter alia, the following obligations:

• to send every month to the transport operator the necessary documents for the issue of GCs;
• to file on a quarterly basis the necessary documents for establishing the quantities of E-RES produced in high efficiency cogeneration which may benefit from additional GCs with the ANRE
• to maintain justifying documents based on which the information for issuance of GCs has been sent for at least 5 years.

The network operators have the responsibility of measuring the electricity delivered/consumed. In this respect, the network operators will sign agreement protocol with the Producers stipulating the measured values of the electricity delivered/consumed to/from the network during the past month, within the first 5 business days of each month.

Registration of Producers with the transport operator

In view of receiving GCs, the Producers should be registered with the transport operator. Such registration shall be based on an application along with a copy of the accreditation decision issued by ANRE and a copy of the exploitation license. As an exception, the Producers operating energy facilities during the trial period will need to submit with the application a copy of the accreditation decision. In this case, the copy of the exploitation license shall be submitted within 3 business days from the date the respective Producer receives the license from ANRE.

General documents required for issue of GC

The Producers shall, every month, send the necessary information (structured on types of RES/E-RES production technologies) for the establishment of the quantity of E-RES which shall benefit from GCs along with the protocols confirming the measured values of E-RES delivered/consumed.

Additionally, the Producers shall send an affidavit confirming that the E-RES has not been produced from imported biomass.

Issue of Green Certificates

Establishing the quantity of E-RES which benefits from GC

Transport operator shall issue every month GCs to Producers for the quantity of E-RES produced. Out of the total amount of electricity generated, the transport operator shall deduct the energy required for the power-plant’s own consumption.

In case electricity is purchased from the system for a specific location of the power-plant, the transport operator shall issue GCs to Producers only after the validation of the computations done by the Producers with respect to the E-RES benefiting from GCs. The Regulation also includes the formula for such computation.

Producers using cogeneration power-plants shall receive the additional GCs from the transport operator only based on the qualification decision issued by ANRE.

If Producers exploit power plants which include both the electrical groups stipulated in the production license and electrical groups under trial but do not have individual measuring groups for each category, the distribution of E-RES which benefits from GCs shall be done pro rata with the ratio between the installed power of each category of groups and the overall power of the power plant stipulated in the set-up authorization issued by ANRE (RO: autorizatie de infiintare).

Establishing the number of GCs issued to Producers

The number of GCs issued by the transport operator shall be set as the result of multiplying the quantity of E-RES (established pursuant to the above) with the number of GCs which should be granted to the respective Producer in accordance with the technology used. As an exception, the number of GCs issued for the electricity produced in groups of power stations which benefit from State aid shall be determined by observing the number of GCs which should be received by the respective Producer as per the accreditation decision issued by ANRE.

Issue of GCs

As a general rule, the transport operator shall issue the GCs within 4 business days as of the receipt of the complete information for such issue. However, certain categories of Producers shall receive GCs on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Each GC shall have the following characteristics:

• is issued in electronic format;
• contains at least (i) the name and address of the Producer, (ii) the type of RES used, (iii) the number of the license, (iv) if the case, the number of the accreditation decision, (v) serial number, (vi) numerical code, (vii) issuing entity, and (viii) issue date;
• is valid for a maximum 16 months. After this period the GC shall be annulled if not used by the supplier or shall be considered as consumed if used by the supplier to prove the fulfillment of the acquisition quota.

Conditions for annulment of GCs and/or ceasing the issue of GCs

When ANRE ascertains, further to a control, that a Producer has unfairly obtained additional GCs, the transport operator shall take one of the following actions:

(a) annulment of the respective GCs, if such GCs had not been traded;

(b) deduction from the number of GCs to be granted in the following month(s) of the number of additional GCs obtained unfairly, if such GCs had already been traded.

In the case of (b) above, if the duration of the promotion system has expired and the GCs obtained have been already traded, the producer shall be compelled to purchase on the market a number of GCs equal to the number of additional GCs issued unfairly. If the producer does not purchase said GCs as ordered by ANRE, it shall be obliged to pay EUR 110 per GC.

By Venkatesh Srinivasan, Partner – Head of Tax and Legal, Ernst & Young Romania

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