In 2020 we will not pay more for the development of renewable energy in Poland. It will be the third year in a row for the Energy Regulatory Office to keep the RES fee on zero level.
The RES fee is one of the components of electricity bills sent to customers by power utilities. These fees are charged by power distribution companies since 1 July 2016. The fee was set at 2.51 PLN/MWh. The rate for 2017 was 3.70 PLN/MWh.
However, not much renewable capacity has been added since then. Therefore the ERO has decided for the RES fee to be 0 PLN/MWh in 2018 and 2019.
As a reminder, the RES fee is a result of the support scheme for generation of electricity from renewable energy sources and agricultural biogas as well as generation of heat in RES installations, and is related to ensuring an adequately high share of renewables in the national energy mix.
Generators of green energy compete price-wise by taking part in RES auctions organized by the ERO. Auction winners will receive a purchase guarantee for their generated electricity at a fixed price resulting from the auction. If the price at which they sell their green energy on the market is lower than the price set at the auction, then the Settlement Manager – handling the RES fee – will pay the difference to the generators. That is the purpose of the RES fee collected from all energy offtakers.
– Several factors had an impact on the fee calculation and its amount in 2020. Firstly it should be noted that generation of electricity under the auction scheme and accession of additional generators to the system is a gradual process, a consequence of the investment process. Therefore we still do not have the maximum declared energy production available from all generators who have won the auctions so far. This applies in particular to large wind farms – explained Rafał Gawin, President of the ERO, as quoted on the regulator’s website.
The ERO points out that a very important factor when calculating the RES fee are the prices on the wholesale energy market (the Polish Power Exchange – TGE), and these have recently been at a relatively high level. Moreover, the Settlement Manager, responsible for the amounts collected in the first two years of existence of the RES fee, has collected sufficient funds to cover the current demand from green energy producers.