New Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Renewable Energy…

The Renewable Energy and High-Efficiency Cogeneration Law is designed to promote development of the electricity market, improve environmental protection arrangements, and introduce new incentives through feed-in tariff (FIT) and feed-in premium (FIP) auctions. These rules also provide for a new categorisation of energy generation facilities that use renewables.

Key changes from previous rules

1. Categorisation of renewables and high-efficiency cogeneration facilities by technology and installed capacity

Pursuant to the law, renewable energy may be generated from hydropower, wind, solar, and geothermal energy, biomass, biogas, tidal, wave, and other ocean energy, and landfill and sewage treatment plant gas, as well as from efficient cogeneration.

The law categorises renewable and high-efficiency cogeneration facilities into small and large ones, based on their installed capacity.

2. Prosumers and citizen renewable energy communities as new stakeholders

2.1. Prosumers

‘Prosumer’ means an electricity consumer that generates electricity using renewables and/or high-efficiency cogeneration to meet some of its needs for energy from their own generation facilities.

A final customer may connect a renewable energy generation facility to the internal electricity network of their building for purposes of their own consumption. By doing so and entering into an agreement with the relevant operator, this customer becomes a prosumer.

Household and commercial buyers located in the same building or residential estate may act jointly as prosumers. The installed capacity of the generation facility for such joint prosumers may not exceed the sum total of approved connection capacities of the individual final customers.

Net metering and net billing schemes are used to allow prosumers to feed excess electricity into the grid and draw electricity from the grid where their individual production is not sufficient to meet their needs.

• Citizen renewable energy community

‘Citizen renewable energy community’ is a legal entity, including co-operatives, which:

• engages in generation, is based on voluntary and open participation and is autonomous and effectively controlled by members or shareholders located in the vicinity of a renewable energy generation facility which has been developed and is owned by that legal entity;
• has for its members natural persons, small/medium-sized companies and/or local authorities and enterprises majority owned by local authorities; and
• has for its primary purpose to provide environmental, economic or social community benefits to its members or shareholders or to the local areas where it operates rather than to generate financial profits.

The law also governs the rights of citizen renewable energy communities. They and their members are entitled to:

• generate, consume, store, exchange and sell renewable energy (including pursuant to renewable energy purchase agreements);
• undertake mandatory purchasing of electricity in whole or in part at guaranteed purchase prices for small-scale generation facilities, with regard to the quantities available based on the technology used;
• exchange, within the community, of electricity generated by generating units owned by the community, and maintenance of the rights and obligations of community members as customers; and
• minimum share of technical quotas for small-scale generation facilities.

3. FIT and FIP auctions

A renewable energy generator may be eligible for incentives, whereby it can receive a guaranteed purchase price for small-scale generation facilities that use solar, wind, biomass, or biogas power.

A generator that wins an auction is declared a prospective privileged generator by the Renewable Energy and High-Efficiency Cogeneration operator.

A prospective privileged generator is entitled to incentives (guaranteed purchase price or premium) for any electricity generated pursuant to the law.

Feed-in tariff auctions for small-scale generation facilities (for solar, installed capacity up to and including 150 kW; wind, installed capacity up to and including 250 kW; biomass and biogas, installed capacity up to and including 500 kW) is an auction where one or multiple winning bidders become eligible to sell a particular quantity of electricity (measured in MWh) generated from renewable sources or high-efficiency cogeneration.

Feed-in premium auctions for large generation facilities (for solar, installed capacity exceeding 150 kW; wind, installed capacity exceeding 250 kW; biomass and biogas, installed capacity exceeding 500 kW) is an auction where one or multiple winning bidders become eligible for a fixed premium for each MWh of electricity generated from renewable sources or high-efficiency cogeneration delivered from large facilities.

Lastly, the law has trebled fines for non-compliance, which may make audits of energy stakeholders more effective.