Electrabel: Feed-in tariffs

Brussels, 19-2-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — The Court of Appeal in Brussels has delivered an important ruling regarding the feed-in tariffs charged to electricity generators in Belgium, as part of Elia’s transmission tariffs for the 2012-2015 period. To recapitulate, in early 2012 Electrabel, and other producers, submitted an application for annulment of Belgian energy regulator CREG’s decision of 22 December 2011, which approved Elia System Operator’s transmission tariffs for the regulatory period 2012-2015.

In its ruling of 6 February 2013, the Brussels Court of Appeal annuls the CREG’s 22 December 2011, decision in its entirety.

Electrabel notes that most of the arguments put forward by the energy generators were accepted by the Court in its reasoning. The Court of Appeals believes that the feed-in tariffs for the use of the system, for ancillary services, and the “volume fee” for volumes injected into the grid, are illegal. In particular, the Court of Appeals stressed the fact that they have no legal basis, they are discriminatory, they do not reflect real costs and they exceed the maximum feed-in tariff authorised under European law.

Electrabel wishes to point out that in an increasingly competitive sector, the feed-in tariffs imposed by Elia and approved by the CREG a little over a year ago resulted in Belgian facilities being less competitive than those of neighbouring countries, which are unaffected by these additional costs. Preference was therefore given to the importation of electricity, to the detriment of local production.

P R E S S
E L E C T R A B E L
Anne-Sophie Hugé (fr)
+ 32 2 518 60 20
Geetha Keyaert (nl)
+ 32 2 518 65 04
press@electrabel.com
www.electrabel.com