RESC is a proud partner of the RE-Source 2023 conference, and as the bearer of the name RE-Source Croatia HUB and leader in the development of the PPA market in Croatia, it also participates in the program of this year’s conference. Maja Pokrovac, director of RESC, today spoke on the Market zoom in Croatia & SEE panel about the development of the PPA market in Croatia and its importance for the development of renewable energy and ultimately the energy independence of Croatia, its industry, entrepreneurship, and citizens. “RESC is the leader in the development of the PPA market in Croatia and the only association that has recognized the importance of purchasing renewable energy through PPA contracts, and this year we organized the RE-Source Croatia conference, the first such conference in Croatia and the region dedicated to PPA contracts,” said Maja Pokrovac.
She adds that in the years before the conference, PPA contracts in Croatia were rarely agreed upon and mostly for existing renewable energy projects, but after the RE-Source Croatia conference, three new PPA contracts were signed, and the construction of 100 MW of new renewable energy projects was agreed upon, which is an excellent indicator of the potential of this market in Croatia.
She also stated that there are no regulatory barriers to the development of PPA contracts in Croatia. She emphasized that the potential for their development is reduced by the recently introduced rules for connecting to the HOPS network which state that the producer is not assured of how much of the produced energy will be accepted onto the network, and a connection to the network can be requested only once a year for a duration of 10 days in a defined period in May. In this absurdity, HOPS rules require that the fee for the network be paid before obtaining a construction permit, right at the beginning of the entire network request process. This is unacceptable. It should be possible for producers to physically sell electricity directly to end consumers or at least large companies. In the current setup without suppliers, this is not possible.
“It is necessary to remove barriers and enable faster construction of renewable energy projects because without them there are no new PPA contracts. Investors are ready and have expressed interest in developing 6000 MW of renewable energy projects. Customers send inquiries to producers daily for direct purchase of renewable energy in Croatia. The European Commission believes that these contracts will play a key role in the development of renewable energy and achieving energy self-sufficiency. These contracts, in addition to corporations and large industrial electricity consumers, should also be available to small and medium-sized enterprises and citizens to have a secure supply of green energy. In Croatia, there are numerous models of such contracting, and next year we foresee another 200 MW of renewable projects contracted through PPA contracts, which will benefit everyone.”
Croatia among 21 of 27 EU member states with a developed PPA market
Data from the RE-Source Platform, Europe’s leading network for corporate procurement of renewable energy, shows that only six EU countries, namely Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, and Slovakia, have not yet signed a single corporate renewable energy procurement contract. Croatia, Bulgaria, Austria, and Romania entered the PPA market by signing the first corporate PPA contracts last year. Following Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Portugal joined this market this year. This makes Croatia extremely important for the development of PPA contracts in the European Union, especially in the region.
To have more renewable projects and more PPA contracts in the future, it is first and foremost important to remove barriers such as HOPS’s network rules and to organize regional and national PPA conferences and workshops so that the industry, renewable energy producers, small and medium-sized enterprises, but also citizens can learn more about the benefits of these contracts. And OIEH, as a representative of the RE-Source platform, will continuously implement them to ensure that Croatia and the EU have as much domestic, secure, renewable energy as possible.
