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Government of Federation BiH presents preliminary draft of regulation on renewables and cogeneration

Date: February 2^nd 2010 Author: Mirsad Bajtarević, Sarajevo Category: Articles
Topic: Electricity , RES and EE , Energy policy

The fact that power generation from renewables is an area that has not been regulated in Federation BiH in the past is the fundamental reason for adoption of a new Regulation on the use of renewable energy sources and cogeneration, as was highlighted at the public presentation of the preliminary draft in Sarajevo.

The Regulation defines those issues that are not governed by the Energy Act, whereby its objective is to diminish administrative obstacles regarding investment into renewable energies, according to Mustafa Gagula, head of the working group responsible for preparation of the new Regulation.

PHOTO: www.talum.si

Gagula said that what was new about the Regulation in question was that it specified the construction and the use of power plants of over 5 megawatt capacities, which had not been done before. In addition, the Regulation also includes issues such as exploration of new potentials, registry of projects and plants, issuing certificates or guarantees of origin, introduction of a market operator, a new model of purchase price in light of the current decision of the government, compensations under the heading production and consumption, and the incentives for domestic production and for the use of new equipment and new technologies.

According to Federation’s Prime Minister Mustafa Mujezinovic, 2010 should be a year of investments, as the government will not get away with not having acted during the recession.

Vahid Heco, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mining, on the other hand said that the country needed the Regulation in question so as to have some sort of a document as soon as possible, and that once the Regulation was adopted, a relevant act would be passed soon thereafter. He added that the Regulation had been prepared properly and that it might need only minor corrections to make up an Act.

Furthermore, Heco told to Energetika.NET that the government should have adopted the respective Regulation within 15 days at the latest. According to Prime Minister, the only hope for the country is to create benefits for the entire population of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the shortest time possible by building new power facilities. In turn, the budgets will show that economic activities are under way and that there is a flow of new and fresh capital.

Aleksandar Knezevic who is an expert on renewable energy sources told to Energetika.NET that the government’s Regulation will come into force only providing it would enable import of new technologies and foster job creation.

PHOTO: Simona Drevenšek

If they are unable to achieve those two goals, then they are unable to achieve progress, Knezevic said, adding that they needed to set wider objectives, whereby the respective Regulation was merely one element out of many. He said that what they should do is to introduce new technologies and employ more people. By building a wind farm, they could employ four locals and six people from Germany, Knezevic explained, adding that they should better employ local people.

Moreover, the preliminary draft of the Regulation foresees that incentive compensation is paid by electricity buyer and charged as an addition to the price of electricity in the amount of 0.001 convertible marks (1 Euro = 1.95 convertible marks). In addition, the draft also envisages payment of deposits as a prerequisite for getting authorisation to build energy facility in the amount of 20 convertible marks per kilowatt hour of a prospective plant of up to 1MW capacity, 10 convertible marks per kilowatt hour for plants between 1 and 10 MW capacities and 5 convertible marks per kilowatt hour for plants over 10 MW capacity.

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