Energy Community and EBRD issue Policy Guidelines for renewable energy auctions

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Energy Community (EnC) Secretariat have published joint Policy Guidelines to help countries design and implement competitive selection processes for supporting renewable energy.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) assisted EBRD and EnC Secretariat with designing Policy Guidelines. The Draft Policy Guidelines on Introducing Renewable Energy Auctions was presented in November 2017.

According to Energy Community Secretariat, more and more countries are using competitions to set the level, and select the recipients, of support for renewable electricity. These competitions are driving down the cost of renewable energy with great success, in many cases to below the cost of conventional power.

”The Policy Guidelines Competitive Selection and Support for Renewable Energy set out best practice for the key design principles for such competitions,”, the EnC Secretariat said.

For the purposes of the Guidelines the term “auctions” refers to approaches that share the common feature of relying on a competitive process rather than an administrative determination “Ranging from simple tenders to more complex selection methods,” the Policy Guidelines reads.

The purpose of the Policy Guidelines is to set out the common position of the EnC Secretariat and EBRD on the key design principles that should be adopted to competitively set the level, and select the recipients, of public support for renewable electricity.

Implementation in Albania and Macedonia

These Guidelines are intended primarily for the countries which are both parties to the Energy Community Treaty and EBRD countries of operation.

The Policy Guidelines are already being reflected in the policy work of the EBRD and the EnC Secretariat – most notably in Albania and former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where the EBRD is providing assistance to authorities that is underpinned by the Policy Guidelines. And in Ukraine, where the Policy Guidelines are informing the discussions on the policy framework for supporting renewables.

In June the Energy Community invited Serbia to amend Energy Law in order to align its legal framework with European Union’s acquis for renewables.