CEWR will hold a discussion of the amendments to the Ordinance on the connection of electricity producers and customers to the transmission and distribution networks

The Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (CEWR) will hold a public discussion with interested parties on the amendments to the Ordinance on the connection of producers and customers of electricity to the transmission and distribution networks

The amendment of the normative act is required in connection with the amendments and additions to the Energy Act, concerning in particular the so-called relaxed deadlines for joining renewable energy sources (RES). As noted in the report of the working group to the CEWR, "The NID project of Regulation No. 6 aims to create a by-law regulation for the connection of customer and producer sites under a temporary scheme of access to the electricity transmission network, as well as to determine the basic rights and obligations of the operator of the electricity transmission network, the customers and the producers in connection with the realization of this legal possibility. The NID draft of Ordinance No. 6 complies with the requirements of ZE, according to which the operator of the electric transmission network is obliged to offer connection to a temporary access scheme to customers/producers in the order in which their requests are received.

Next, in order to regulate the terms in which the electricity transmission operator must coordinate the conditions for connecting customer sites and electricity producers to the relevant electricity distribution network, as well as with a view to determining the scope of such coordination, amendments and additions are provided in Art. 7, para. 2 and in Art. 53 of Ordinance No. 6".

The amendments comment on the so-called temporary access scheme, deadlines for agreeing conditions for connection of sites of customers and electricity producers, as well as other case studies.

The working group of the energy regulator also refers to a letter from the Electricity System Operator (ESO) from March of this year, according to which "after the promulgation of the amendments and additions to ZE in SG, no. 11 of 2023, the company received numerous requests from customers and electricity producers to join a temporary scheme for access to their sites with a total installed capacity of over 1,000 MW. According to ESO EAD, this creates an immediate need to regulate at the sub-legislative level the conditions and order of connection in the case of a temporary scheme for access of objects to the electricity transmission network.

In turn, the joining of the new sites for the production of electrical energy will lead to an increase in the amount of electrical energy that will be traded on an organized exchange market, accordingly, it will create prerequisites for reducing the price of electrical energy."