The road is opening for small photovoltaic investments

The long-awaited Ministerial Decision was published a few days ago in the Government Gazette, paving the way for the start of applications from small investors for photovoltaic parks up to 400 kW in Peloponnese, Crete and the Cyclades. These are areas in which, until recently, the electrical grids were considered saturated and could not… pick up any more current. However, about a year ago an exemption was given for small solar farms.

Applications for the granting of a definitive connection offer will be submitted electronically, through the appropriate information system prepared by the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO) and which, according to the ministerial decision, should be ready by September 10. Until then, the Administrator must also determine the exact day and time of the start of submission of applications in the three regions. In any case, the time when the new e-portal will be put into normal operation is determined between October 1 and October 25.

The applications

An application may be submitted by any natural or legal person participating in the management or as a shareholder, partner or member of a legal person, with any percentage of participation. Each interested party will be entitled to submit only one application for the granting of a definitive connection offer for a photovoltaic station with a power of up to 400 kilowatts (kW) for each of the Peloponnese, Crete and Cyclades networks. It is noteworthy that the specific projects will award billing without holding tenders, with a price of 65.7 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) produced.

For the photovoltaic stations, the Network Operator will receive applications for granting a definitive connection offer until the coverage of total power increased by 200% in terms of the respective limits provided for by law 4819/2021. It should be noted that, with the specific regulations, the power margin had been readjusted in the saturated networks of Peloponnese, Crete and Cyclades. So today the power margin for the installation of photovoltaic stations is 86 megawatts (MW) in the Peloponnese, 45 MW in the Cyclades (of which 15 MW for net metering) and 140 MW in Crete (of which 40 MW for net metering ).

Pending applications

Pending applications for the granting of a final offer for the connection of photovoltaic stations, which do not have a Production License or a Producer Certificate, will automatically be considered invalid, without the interested parties losing the right to resubmit an application.

It is noteworthy that a definitive connection offer will also be granted to the last photovoltaic station on the list, which may exceed the total power set in each region. For example, as mentioned by a market agent, if in the Peloponnese, where the extra power is 86 MW, 85.7 MW is covered, it will be possible for the next investor to be accepted and get a “green light” from HEDNO.

After the acceptance by the interested parties of the definitive connection offers and the exhaustion of the limits set in each of the (formerly) saturated networks, the applications for the granting of definitive connection offers that have been submitted to the Network Operator as well as applications received which are unable to connect and remain pending, will be rejected.