At the meeting on April 7, the Cabinet of Ministers approved at its meeting amendments to the electricity trading and use rules, which simplify the procedures for the application of the net electricity settlement system (net system).
By the approved amendments, users of the net system are exempted from payments for the variable share of the electricity mandatory procurement component (MPC) for the amount of electricity generated by them, which net system users transferred to the grid and received back from the grid within the scope of one year.
The net system was introduced as a state aid mechanism to promote the generation of electricity from renewable sources in general, as well as to encourage the involvement of the population in renewable energy generation. The net system is the procedure for settlements for electricity for self-consumers of renewable energy sources. At the beginning of March 2020, 519 households with a total installed microgenerator capacity of 2.8 MW were registered in the net system. The majority of net system members have solar panels installed.
Among other things, the amendments improve the regulation for the functioning of the electricity market data exchange and storage platform, so that electricity system operators, traders and other electricity system operators can exchange current electricity system and market data in an efficient, organised and transparent way. At the same time, manual handling of information requests is reduced to a minimum, thereby reducing the total cost of processing and exchanging data.
The amendments introduce a mechanism whereby the distribution system operator JSC “Sadales tīkls” applies compensation to the user in the event of an unplanned electricity supply interruption if it exceeds 24 h. The introduction of such a mechanism will stimulate action of the distribution system operator in restoring the supply of electricity to users as soon as possible in cases where the interruption is caused by damage or failure of the electrical installations of the system operator. It is important that such regulatory changes will help improve Latvia’s position in the Getting Electricitysection of the Doing Business rating by approximately 21 place, thereby also contributing to starting a business.
The changes included in the amendments to the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers stem from the amendments to the Electricity Market Law adopted at the beginning of 2020. You can read more about the approved amendments to Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 50 of 21 January 2014 “Electricity Trade and Usage Rules” on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers.
At the same time, the Ministry of Economics continues to work on new solutions for improving the net system and promoting the self-consumption of electricity from renewable energy sources.