Law Amendments as of May 2013 – Law 4152/2013

Photovoltaics has also developed in Greece into one of the most attractive and lucrative investments, not only for Greek citizens. This investment opportunity is feasible for everyone in Greece, and much more importantly, everyone can benefit from all the advantages and achievable profit distributions existing through this investment in Greece.

1. Letter of Guarantee (as of 01.05.2014)

With the acceptance of the Final Connection Offer for plants for the production of electrical energy from renewable energy sources (APE) and high-efficiency electrical energy & heat cogeneration plants (SITHYA) according to Articles 3 and 4 of Law 3468/2006, a letter of guarantee addressed to the operator must be submitted. The acceptance of the Final Connection Offer must take place within two (2) months from its issuance. Non-acceptance of the Final Connection Offer within the aforementioned deadline leads to its cancellation by operation of law. The term of the letter of guarantee is at least 2 years and must necessarily be extended before its expiry until a trial operation of the plant or – if no trial operation is provided for – until its connection is commissioned.

The amount of the letter of guarantee is fixed per unit of the nominal capacity of the application in MW at:

• 60,000 Euros for a capacity range of up to 1 MW, with a proportional reduction for capacity lower than 1 MW,
• 30,000 Euros for the capacity range from 1 MW to 10 MW,
• 20,000 Euros for the capacity range from 10 MW to 100 MW and 10,000 Euros for a capacity range higher than 100 MW

The aforementioned letter of guarantee shall be forfeited in favour of the special account of Article No. 40 of Law 2773/1999, if it is not extended within at least three (3) working days before its expiry or if the corresponding contract for the connection of the plant has not entered into force within the validity period of the final connection offer. Upon the entry into force of the connection contract, the amount of the letter of guarantee is reduced to ¼ of the initial amount. Letters of guarantee that have been submitted before the signing of the connection contracts for PV plants shall be refunded after the submission of a sworn declaration by the investor, addressed to the competent operator. The declaration must state that the investor will not proceed with the construction of the plant and must be submitted within a period of two months from the entry into force of the present law. Upon submission of this sworn declaration, the respective contracts for the purchase and connection of the plant to the interconnected grid or system, including the islands not connected to the interconnected system, shall be dissolved by operation of law.

Following the submission of the investor’s sworn declaration to the competent operator regarding the non-erection of the PV plant, which must be submitted within a period of two (2) months from the entry into force of the present law, the amounts that have been paid to the competent operator within the framework of the respective connection contract for the PV plant and which correspond to the part of the connection activities that were not implemented until the day of submission of the corresponding sworn declaration, shall be refunded. Upon submission of the aforementioned sworn declaration, the respective contracts for the purchase and connection of the plant to the system or the interconnected grid, including the islands not connected to the interconnected system, shall be dissolved by operation of law.

Basically excluded from the obligation to submit the letter of guarantee are those PV systems erected on buildings, regardless of size.

The obligation to submit the letter of guarantee also applies to all those cases for which a final connection offer was already granted before the entry into force of the present law, and provided that no valid connection contract exists upon entry into force. The letter of guarantee must be submitted to the competent operator in these cases within a period of 1 month from the entry into force of the present case. The amount of the letter of guarantee is half of the aforementioned amounts. If the letter of guarantee is not submitted in time, the validity of the connection offer expires ipso jure after the expiry of the aforementioned one-month deadline.

Suspension of Contract Signing

The conclusion of contracts for the connection of photovoltaic plants for the production of electrical energy is suspended until 31.12.2013. Likewise, the conclusion of contracts for the sale of the electrical energy produced with LAGIE is also suspended until 31.12.2013. Excluded here are those cases that provide for PV plants on buildings and in particular on roofs, and for which a complete file for the signing of the purchase contract has been submitted before the entry into force of the corresponding law.

Change to the Solidarity Surcharge

According to the new law, the special solidarity surcharge for the following cases is set at 34% to 42%:

1. at 37% and 34 % respectively for those PV plants that commenced trial operation or whose connection was activated in the period from 01.01.2013 to 30.06.2013, and for sales of electrical energy occurring after 01.01.2013, with the exception of plants owned by farmers and those plants on non-interconnected islands
2. at 42% and 40 % respectively for those PV plants that commenced trial operation or whose connection was activated after 01.07.2013.

Special Fee for Maintaining Ownership Rights to a Production License

The holders of production licenses (according to Art. 3 of Law 3468/2006) for plants from RES will pay an annual fee of 1000 €/MW to LAGIE within the first three months of every calendar year. This obligation exists

1. for PV plants, after the expiry of one year from the granting of the production license,
2. for plants referred to in cases a) to c) of the last sentence of paragraph 10 of Article 8 of Law 3468/2006, specifically after the expiry of 4 years from the granting of the production license.
3. for other plants for the production of electrical energy from RES according to Art. 3 of Law 3468/2006, excluding PV plants, after the expiry of 3 years from the granting of the permit and until the submission of the letter of guarantee

For production licenses that were granted until the entry into force of the law, the aforementioned obligation arises for the above cases a), b) and c) after the expiry of 2, 8 and 6 years from the granting of the production license, – and in no case before 01.01.2014 – and ends with the submission of the letter of guarantee (Case 4 of Subsection I.1.). Specifically for the year 2014, the payment of the special fee must take place by 30.06.2014.

The subsequent calendar year of the year in which the production license was granted is considered the first calendar year. In the event of non-payment of the annual fee on time, the validity of the production license expires by operation of law.

(Status: May 2013. All information provided without warranty or liability.)