Republic of Srpska: Feed-in tariff

Updated: 01.01.2019

Author: Ivana Naydenova

In the Republic of Srpska, the main support schemes for the production of electricity from renewable energy sources are  feed-in tariff (”Право на гарантовану откупну цијену”, Art. 20 § 1 lit. г RES Law RS) and premium, regulated by the Energy Law RS, Electricity Law RS and above all the RES Law RS, special Decrees and Rulebooks. Firstly, the plant operator needs to obtain a RES Certificate and a Decision on the Right to Support by applying to the Energy Regulator (“Regulatorna komisija za energetiku Republike Srpske” Art. 12 Electricity Law). Hence, the Support Scheme Operator („Operator Sistema Podsticaja“, Art. 13 RES Law RS) concludes a power purchase agreement at a guaranteed price („Ugovor o obaveznom otkupu po garantovanoj cijeni”). The amount of the feed-in tariff is determined in the Decision on the amount of the guaranteed prices and premium prices for electricity produced from renewable sources and efficient cogeneration and depends on the type of technology and the capacity of the power plant. The funds are financed by an incentive fee that the final consumer is obliged to pay on the amount of consumed electricity (Art. 30 RES Law RS).

Eligible technologies

In general, all technologies are eligible; however, some limitations with regard to the installed power apply. The combined total installed capacity of the facility owner cannot be higher than 30 MW (Art. 6 § 1 lit. б RES Promotion Rulebook).
If a power plant was reconstructed, the plant operator has only the right to support for the share of capacity that has increased thanks to the reconstruction in comparison with the former total capacity of the facility (Art. 25 RES Law RS).
A support cannot be received, if the investor installed used equipment (such as turbines, generators, solar panels) in the facility (Art. 21 § 3 RES Law RS in conjunction with Art. 6 § 2 and 3 RES Promotion Rulebook). Moreover, the power plant must not be older than 15 years (Art. 17 § 1 RES Promotion Rulebook).

Wind energy

Eligible up to a capacity of 10 MW (Art. 21 § 1 lit. a Nr. 2 RES Law RS).

Solar energy

Eligible up to a capacity of 1 MW (Art. 21 § 1 lit. a Nr. 3 RES Law RS).

Geothermal energy

Eligible up to a capacity of 10 MW (Art. 21 § 1 lit. a Nr. 4 RES Law RS).

Biogas

Eligible up to a capacity of 1 MW (Art. 21 § 1 lit. a Nr. 6 RES Law RS).

Hydro-power

Eligible up to a capacity of 10 MW (Art. 21 § 1 lit. a Nr. 1 RES Law RS).

Biomass

Eligible up to a capacity of 10 MW (Art. 21 § 1 lit. a Nr. 5 RES Law RS).

Amount

The amount of the feed-in tariff is determined by the Energy Regulator in Nr. II.1 of the Decision on the amount of the guaranteed prices and premium prices for electricity produced from renewable sources and efficient cogeneration (Art. 23 § 1 RES Promotion Rulebook).
The feed-in tariff can be reduced, if the plant operator received state aids during the investment period for the construction of the facility (Art. 20 § 3 and 4 RES Law RS).

Wind energy

Feed-in tariff

• Up to 10 MW: BAM 0.1466 (approx. €ct 7.52) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

Premium

• Up to 10 MW: BAM 0.0799 (approx. €ct 3.93) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

Solar energy

Feed-in tariff

Residential systems:

 

  • Up to 50 kW: BAM 0.2734 (approx. €ct 14.02) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)
  • 50 - 250 kW: BAM 0.2341 (approx. €ct 12.00) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision) • 250 kW - 1 MW: BAM 0.1856 (approx. €ct 9.51) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

Groundmounted systems:

 

  • Up to 250 kW: BAM 0.2169 (approx. €ct 11.12) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

Premium

Residential systems:

 

  • Up to 50 kW: BAM 0.2067 (approx. €ct 10.60) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)
  • 50 - 250 kW: BAM 0.1674 (approx. €ct 8.59) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision) 
  • 250 kW - 1 MW: BAM 0.1189 (approx. €ct 6.10) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

Groundmounted systems:

 

  • Up to 250 kW: BAM 0.1502 (approx. €ct 7.70) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

 

 

 

Geothermal energy

 

 

Biogas

For agricultural biogas up to 1 MW:

Feed-in tariff

 

  • Up to 1 MW: BAM 0.2402 (approx. €ct 12.28) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision) Premium
  • Up to 1 MW: BAM 0.1735 (approx. €ct 8.90) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

 

 

 

Hydro-power

Feed-in tariff

 

  • Up to 1 MW: BAM 0.1396 (approx. €ct 7.16) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)
  • 1 - 5 MW: BAM 0.1227 (approx. €ct 6.29) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)
  • 5 - 10 MW: BAM 0.1186 (approx. €ct 6.10) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

Premium

 

  • Up to 1 MW: BAM 0.0729 (approx. €ct 3.74) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)
  • 1 - 5 MW: BAM 0.0560 (approx. €ct 2.87) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)
  • 5 - 10 MW: BAM 0.0519 (approx. €ct 2.66) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

 

 

 

Biomass

For solid biomass

Feed-in tariff

 

  • Up to 1 MW: BAM 0.2413 (approx. €ct 21.53) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)
  • 1 - 10 MW: BAM 0.2261 (approx. €ct 11.55) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

Premium

 

  • Up to 1 MW: BAM 0.1746 approx. €ct 8.96) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)
  • 1 - 10 MW: BAM 0.1694 (approx. €ct 8.69) per kWh (Art. 2 para.1 Tariff Amount Decision)

Addressees

This feed-in tariff is addressed to operators of renewable energy plants, who received a positive decision on the right to support and concluded a power purchase agreement (Art. 7 Support Scheme Operation Rules).

The Support Scheme Operator is obliged to conclude the contract on the power purchase at the feed-in tariff price (Art. 8 Support Scheme Operation Rules).

Procedure

Process flow

RES Certificate

In order to be eligible for the support scheme, the plant operator first needs to obtain a „Certificate for the Electricity Production from Renewable Energy Sources“ from the Energy Regulator (”Цертификат за производно постројенје које производи електричну енергију из обновлјивих извора”, Аrt. 8 § 1, 2 RES Law RS). This RES Certificate proves that the power plant produces electricity from renewable energy sources in a cost-efficient and environmentally not harmfull manner. The validity period of the RES Certificate depends on the technology of the power plant and is outlined in Art. 9 RES Law RS. The detailed criteria for the RES Certificate are laid down in the RES Certificate Rulebook.

Request for the Decision on the Right to Support („Pravo na Podsticaj“)

After that, the electricity producer needs to file a request to the Energy Regulator in order to acquire the Right to Support (Art. 27 RES Law RS). Next to the RES Certificate he needs to fulfil the requirements from Art. 14 and 15 RES Rulebook on Stimulating. The decision of the Energy Regulator is put forward to the applicant as well as the Incentive System Operator and the Grid Operator. The plant operator then also needs to submit the RES Certificate to the System Operator (Art. 14 § 7 RES Rulebook on Stimulating).

Power purchase agreement

Thereafter the plant operator applies to the SSO for the conclusion of an “Agreement on the compulsory purchase at the guaranteed price” (“ugovor o obaveznom otkupu po garantovanoj otkupnoj cijeni”). He is obliged to use the predefined form sheet and to hand in the requested documents (Art. 22 § 2 RES Promotion Rulebook). The SSO concludes the contract within 15 days after the receipt of the request (Art. 22 § 5 RES Promotion Rulebook).

Preliminary Right to Support

If the construction of the power plant is not finished yet, the plant operator has the possibility to a preliminary right to sell the electricity to a guaranteed price (“preliminarno pravo na podsticaj obaveznog otkupa po garantovanoj otkupnoj cijeni”), if he fulfills the requirements both in Art. 21 § 1 lit a, б and § 2 RES Law RS and also in Art. 27 § 3 RES Law RS. Then he can conclude a Preliminary Contract on Support (“predugovor o preliminarnom pravu na podsticaj”) with a maximum duration of 3 years (Art. 22 § 10 RES Rulebook on Stimulating). If it comes to a power plant with a capacity of over 250 kW, the plant operator is obliged to pay a deposit or a bank guarantee of 2% of the investment sum to the SSO before signing the Contract (Art. 27 § 6 RES Law RS).

Competent authority

Incentive System Operator (Operator Sistema Podsticaja) and the Regulatory Commission for Energy of the Republic of Srpska (Regulatorna komisija za energetiku Republike Srpske, RERS)

Degression

In principle, a degression mechanism is not foreseen. However, the amount of the tariff can be reduced, if heavy currency fluctuations in relation to the Euro occur (Аrt. 26 § 5 RES Law RS).

Cap

Pursuant to Art. 10 RES Law RS, the “Action Plan of the Republic of Srpska for the use of renewable energy sources 2010-2020” (NAP RS) foresees the promotion of 230.80 MW of installed power from renewable energy until the year 2020 and also sets annual caps up to that time. Depending on the technology the capacities are subdivided into:

 

  • 112.36 MW (507.12 GWh) for hydro power plants (2018: 94.81 MW),
  • 4.2 MW (5GWh) for photovoltaik power plants (2018: 4.05 MW),
  • 100 MW (200 GWh) for wind power plants (2018: 85 MW),
  • 10 MW (29.56 GWh) for solid biomass (2018: 8.5 MW) and
  • 6.50 MW (15 GWh) for biogas (2018: 5.53 MW).

NAP RS is available under: Link

Although foreseen in the RES Law RS, the promotion of geothermal power plants is not intended.

Eligibility period

The power purchase agreement has a maximum duration of 15 years (Art. 22 § 7 RES Promotion Rulebook).

Distribution of costs

Consumers

The feed-in tariff is funded by the incentive fee (“Naknada za podsticanje proizvodnje elektricne energije iz OIE i efikasnu kogeneraciju” – Fee for providing incentive for generation of electricity from renewble energy sources and in efficient cogeneration facilities), which is paid by the final consumer (Art. 30 RES Law RS). The fee currently (2019) amounts to KM 0.0075 per kWh (€ct 0.0023 per kWh) (Nr. III. Incentive Fee Amount Decision 2017). For 2018, the fee be KM 0.0053 per kWh (€ct 0.0038 per kWh) (Nr. III. Incentive Fee Amount Decision 2018).

Distribution mechanism

The distribution mechanism is described mainly in Art. 32 and 33 RES Rulebook on Stimulating:

The Energy Regulator sets the amount of the incentive fee by adopting a decision (see above). The public supplier is obliged to buy the entire produced electricity from the Incentive System Operator  and to sell it to the final consumer (Art. 15 § 2 RES Law RS). The final consumer pays the fee in relation to the total amount of the consumed energy to his supplier (Art. 15 § 5 and Art. 30 RES Law RS). The supplier, who entered into a contract on the fee for renewable sources, finally forwards the received fee funds to the Incentive System Operator. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Further information

  • Regulatorna Komisija za Energetiku Republike Srpske (RERS) – The Regulatory Commission for Energy of the Republic of Srpska
  • +387 59/27 24 00
  • RERS website
  • regulator(at)reers.ba
  • Državna Regulatorna Komisija za Električnu Energiju (DERK) – State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC)
  • +387 35/30 20 60
  • SERC website
  • info(at)derk.ba
  • Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske – Power Utility of the Republic of Srpska
  • Ivan Milinković
  • +387 59/27 71 97
  • Website