RES licenses in 14 months

Of Thanks to Floudopoulos

The reduction of the licensing time of the new RES projects from 5 years which is now in just 14 months, is achieved by the new bill of the Ministry of Environment and Energy that was submitted to the parliament on Friday.

At the same time, the bill modernizes the framework for energy storage projects, leads to the digitization of procedures and according to government estimates is expected to lead to the achievement of strategic goals for at least 25GW RES by 2030.

At the same time, the framework for energy storage is established with the aim of developing electricity storage projects with a power of at least 3.5GW by 2030.

But what are the main changes brought about by the new bill regarding the licensing of RES projects?

Licensing

The main interventions of the draft law are:

The stages of the licensing process are reduced to 5 from 7.

The licensing time of the projects is reduced to 14 months, from 5 years that it reaches and many times exceeds today.

The number of required documents is reduced from 91 to 54, with their submission now being standardized and digital.

The licensing process of the projects is accelerated as: the cases where modification of the licenses is required, giving the possibility of simple information – updating of the investors’ files. To date, during the licensing and due to a change in the design of the project, it is necessary to modify the licenses two to three times and therefore repeat the entire licensing process from the beginning.

A specific milestone is set for investors for the immediate and rapid implementation of their projects. Investors are obliged to issue the Installation Permit within 12 months from the Final Connection Offer.

The controls required in the field of activity of each licensing authority are differentiated, facilitating the involved services from multiple and unnecessary workload, speeding up their response time to the requests of the investors

The competent services and the Administrators are relieved of administrative burden, with the control of the property status now being done by external lawyers.

The financial solvency of the investors is checked by presenting a letter of guarantee during the application to the Administrator for the electrical space and not during its commitment, limiting the number of requests.

The deadlines for the implementation of the connection projects by the Administrators are limited, with the imposition of sanctions in case of delays.

Investors are exempt from 50% of the cost of the connection projects, which is financed by the Administrators while at the same time the Administrators take measures that lead to the optimal utilization of the system and the network, to maximize energy absorption from RES stations and to strengthen and promote self-generating stations.

Actions and permits that were directly connected and mandatory serial, are now carried out separately and in parallel as the Connection Agreement in relation to the Installation License.

The necessary flexibility is given to the investors regarding the licensing of projects in forest areas, at the same time setting the approved reforestation study by the competent forest services as a condition for the electrification and connection of the projects.

Forest issues that delay the licensing and implementation of the station are resolved, such as the reforestation study by investors in parallel with the implementation and installation of the station while we face fragmentation phenomena with a ban on the division of public forest areas for the development of RES stations.

A One Stop Service is created at the Ministry of Environment and Energy that will monitor and supervise the entire licensing process, from the receipt of the first license (Producer Certificate), to the operation of the project (Operation License).

It is envisaged the creation of an information system that will interoperate with all the individual information systems and databases of the competent licensing bodies. That is, with RAE, the Environmental Directorates, the Decentralized Administrations, the System and Network Managers, and the DAPEEP.

Energy storage

In the area of ​​energy storage, the main interventions of the bill are:

The licensing procedure for the installation of individual electricity storage stations is being reformed.

Provisions are introduced regarding the licensing of RES and SITHYA generating stations with integrated electricity storage, which either have the ability to absorb energy from the transmission system or the electricity distribution network or not.

Transitional provisions are introduced for the compliance of existing licenses and pending applications for the licensing of electricity storage stations with the new framework.

Electricity storage systems are divided into two categories:

Pure storage projects, ie individual storage stations for which the electricity storage permit will be granted in proportion to the requirements that exist for the Special RES Projects.

Storage projects combined with RES stations.

In particular, in the case of storage projects combined with RES stations, the storage station will operate either only in support of the RES station (the warehouse is behind the RES station – downstream of the meter) and will not absorb energy from the network, at which point it will receive Producer Certificate as the usual RES projects and will be able to receive operational support.

Either he will be able to absorb energy from the grid, at which time he will receive a Certificate of Producer of Special RES Works without being able to receive operational support.