Croatia increased fee for renewable energy after four years

After four years, Croatia increased the incentive fee for renewable energy sources that is payed by citizens through electricity bills. The fee is increased from EUR 0.47 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to EUR 1.42 per kWh.

The Croatian government decided to increase the fee on August 31. The decision came into force on September 1. The fee which is paid by all electricity consumers, has not been changed since 2013. In the meantime, the capacities for the production of energy from renewable sources have been increased.

In these circumstances, the financial sustainability of the Croatian Energy Market Operator (HROTE) was put into question, especially in 2016 and 2017, the Minister of Environment Protection and Energy of Croatia Tomislav Ćorić said. HROTE pays incentives to the companies that produce electricity from the renewable sources.

Ćorić said that with the fee increase there will be secured enough funds for 2017 and 2018, and that he believes that there will be no further increase of the fee in the forthcoming period.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that he hopes that the issue of the fee for renewables will not be on the agenda until mid-2019. He also announced that the government will discuss ways to increase revenues for HROTA with the stakeholders engaged in renewable energy sources.

No major change in electricity bills

In Croatia, household electricity bills will increase by an average of EUR 3.09. Croatian officials point out that the costs will basically decrease, as the government reduced the VAT for electricity from 25 percent to 13 percent in the beginning of the year to alleviate effects of increasing the fee for renewables.

For the average monthly household consumption of 292 kWh, the electricity bill dated December 31, 2016 was EUR 39.63 (VAT 25 percent), and until the beginning of September this year it would be EUR 35.85 (VAT 13 percent), according to the Croatian Ministry of Environment Protection and Energy’s data.

The incentive fee for renewables will be also increased for the business sector to EUR 1.47 per kWh.