Second - and last - chance to 180,000 farmers, large industries and hotels to pay significantly lower ETMEAR with their electricity bills, are given by the Ministry of Environment & Energy and the Operator of Renewable Sources and Guarantees of Origin (DAPEEP).
According to information from APE-MPA, in April the electronic platform of the DAPEPEP will be reopened where those interested will be able, with a new simplified procedure, to declare their data in order to secure the discount they are entitled to in ETMEAR. Otherwise, they will be charged with increased fees and even retroactively from the beginning of 2019. It is recalled that the ETMEAR is the fee paid by electricity consumers to support the Renewable Energy Financing Account. By decision of RAE, the base charge for the ETMEAR was set at 17 euros per megawatt-hour, in accordance with the Community legislation, which was incorporated into the Greek institutional framework by a Ministerial Decision published in the Government Gazette in August 2019 (Government Gazette 3373 B΄, 31-8-2019). At the same time, a number of industrial consumers belonging to the energy-intensive category, as well as farmers, were given the opportunity to submit corrective declarations in order to continue paying the same or lower tariff and not to increase to 17 euros/MWh.
The online platform for interested parties to submit their declarations was opened last September, but out of the 180,000 farmers estimated to be eligible for the lower fees, only 2,000 responded. «The electronic platform of the DAPEEP will be activated again in April in order to avoid burdening farmers who were not informed in time to submit declarations,» said the President and CEO of the Administrator, Yannis Yarentis, in a statement to APE-MPA. He added: «By order and in cooperation with the Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas, it was decided to give farmers and hotel companies that have joined the measure in the meantime the opportunity to submit declarations, as well as energy-intensive industries that may have made mistakes in the declarations already submitted, to correct them. The DAPEP has created an extremely simple declaration process for farmers, as it has ensured the interoperability of the online platform with the AADE to automatically derive the required data. With the formulation of an appropriate institutional framework that will relieve us of burdens that hamper our participation in the competitive electricity market, we will be able to perform our work even more efficiently for the benefit of the consumer and the public interest.».
It is noted that the reduced ETMEAR charges for farmers and hotels have been set at 9.1 euros per megawatt-hour, while for industry at 2.55 euros/MWh. Those who do not submit declarations in April will automatically fall to 17 Euro/MWh. Finally, it is clarified that the August 2019 decision reduced the ETMEP for households to 17 Euro/MWh from 22.67.
