Renewable Energy Fee Increased to 10.5 Lipa per kWh

The government on Thursday made a decision to increase the fee for renewable energy sources (RES) from the current 3.5 lipa per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to 10.5 lipa per kWh starting from the beginning of September, which will raise the average electricity bill by about 20 kuna per month.

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Minister of Environment and Energy Tomislav Čorić stated at the government session that the fee for promoting RES has not changed in the last four years and that the financial sustainability of the Croatian Energy Market Operator (HROTE) in the context of promoting production from RES has been questionable for some time.

With this correction, as he noted, there will be an increase in the electricity price amounting to 22.90 kuna for the average household consumption, but these bills will be lower by 5.13 kuna compared to bills at the same time last year.

He also mentioned that after this decision to increase the fees for renewable sources, there will be no need for further corrections in the next and a good part of 2019.

It was emphasized that the electricity price for citizens will not be higher than it was before the beginning of this year due to the government’s decision to reduce VAT on electricity from 25% to 13% (since January 1, 2017) in order to mitigate the impact of the increase in the RES fee.

According to calculations by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, for the average monthly household consumption of 292 kWh, the electricity bill with a fee of 3.5 lipa per kWh until December 31, 2016, amounted to 294 kuna (VAT 25%), while by the beginning of September this year it amounts to 266 kuna (VAT 13%).

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From September 1, with the increased RES fee of 10.5 lipa per kWh and for greenhouse gas emission permit holders (CO2 liable) from 0.005 to 0.0007 kuna per kWh and VAT of 13%, the bill would be 289 kuna, which is 5 kuna lower compared to the calculation until December 31, 2016.

The fee for promoting RES has not changed since 2013. This fee is paid by all electricity customers, so it will also be increased for the economy to 10.5 lipa per kWh.