Renewable energy charge for next year is 0.96 cents per kilowatt-hour

Elering has confirmed that the renewable energy charge for consumers in 2016 will be 0.96 cents per kilowatt-hour excluding VAT, which is 0.07 cents more compared with the ending year.

The renewable energy charge was approximately the same size – 0.97 cents – in 2012. In 2013, the charge fell to 0,87 cents, and fell further to 0.77 cents a year later. This year, the charge is 0.89 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The volume of subsidised wind energy has grown over the last 12 months by 50 gigawatt-hours to 574 gigawatt-hours. At the same time, the volume of subsidised energy produced using biomass grew by 11 gigawatt-hours, and energy from biogas by eight gigawatt-hours. Volumes of subsidised hydro energy, however, fell by six gigawatt-hours.

According to forecasts, volumes for subsidised renewable energy will reach 1.26 terawatt-hours, and the volume of subsidised electricity produced as combined heat and power will reach 165 gigawatt-hours.

Payments for electrical energy produced from renewable energy sources are forecast to cost 67.4 million euros, while subsidies for electricity produced as combined heat and power will cost 5.3 million euros.

48 percent of renewable energy subsidies are used to subsidise wind turbines, while 42 percent goes to large biomass-consuming power stations and 10 percent to subsidise electricity producers using hydro energy, solar energy, and biogas and small-scale biomass producers.

Under the Electricity Market Act, Elering is obliged to prepare and publish the renewable energy charge for each year by 1 December of the preceding year. When calculating the charge, the forecast volumes of renewable energy sources or volumes from combined heat and power production are taken into account, as well as associated costs spent on their subsidies, consumption forecasts for the following year, and under- and overproduction from the previous period.

Subsidies for renewable energy producers are financed by electricity consumers through the renewable energy charge, which is paid by all end electricity consumers in Estonia according to the amount of energy they consume. Elering acts as a payment agency, collecting the renewable energy charge from consumers and paying it out to electricity producers under the conditions set out in the Act and the support rate. VAT is added to the renewable energy charge.