Lithuania

Assessment of obstacles and potential for development of ECs

Not addressed in the transposition.

Removal of unjustified regulatory & administrative barriers

RECs are exempted from having to have balancing responsibility for installations. RECs are also exempted from having to pay a mandatory production contribution, which typically must be paid by producers of renewable electricity. To become a supplier of heat or electricity, RECs must comply with all applicable rules.

DSO duties around cooperation with ECs and facilitation of energy sharing

The law mentions that the DSO, applying the non-discriminatory prices and/or tariffs of the services provided by the Council, cooperates with the CECs in order to create more favorable conditions for the transfer of electricity in the CECs. No provisions are yet in place for the activity of energy sharing.

Fair, proportionate, and transparent registration & licensing procedures

In Lithuania part of the grid is reserved for certain priority groups. More specifically, according to a Governmental Resolution, 0.434 GW of permitted generation power is reserved for solar power plants and 0.20 GW of permitted generation power is reserved for wind power plants in the following cases:

• RECs and/or CECs, when municipalities and/or municipal institutions hold more than 51 percent of the votes at the meeting of their members, shareholders or participants, and the main purpose of these associations is to reduce energy poverty and/or provide benefits to the vulnerable electricity consumers, and
• non-profit legal entities planning to install electricity generation facilities using renewable energy sources and use the electricity produced in them for their own needs, including non-profit legal entities that are electricity generating consumers or aspire to become such, and
• persons carrying out activities of the Renewable Energy Law, if the power plant is purchased by non-profit legal entities, for the connection of electricity production facilities.Also, persons carrying out activities in accordance with the procedure and conditions set out in the relevant provisions of the Renewable Energy Law, if the power plant is purchased by legal entities planning to install electricity generation devices using renewable energy sources on the roofs of buildings, renewable energy associations and/ or CECs, legal entities that are consumers producing electricity from renewable sources or aspire to become consumers, 0.633 GW of permitted generation capacity is reserved for solar power plants and 0.32 GW of permitted generation capacity is reserved for wind farms.

Moreover, the national law clarifies that CECs that want to sell electricity to their shareholders or members, as well as CECs that produce electricity from renewable sources, do not need a permit to carry out independent electricity supply activities. Moreover, CECs concluding contracts regarding the physical supply of electricity produced by an individual production unit with a capacity of no more than 10 MW or production units with a total capacity of no more than 10 MW supply and to consumers who wish to sell electricity to consumers who are not shareholders or members of that CEC, permission to carry out independent electricity supply activities is not required.

Incentives connected to network tariffs based on a CBA

Not addressed in the transposition.

Non-discriminatory treatment as market participant

Not addressed in the transposition.

Accessibility to low-income & vulnerable households

The only reference to vulnerable households is included in the provisions that regulate priority grid access. More specifically, RECs and/or CECs, when municipalities and/or municipal institutions hold more than 51 percent of the votes at the meeting of their members, shareholders or participants, and the main purpose of these associations is to reduce energy poverty and/or provide benefits to the vulnerable electricity consumers, then they are included in priority groups for access to the grid under specific conditions.

Tools to access finance

The Lithuanian National Recovery and Resilience Plan explicitly includes the financing of energy communities as part of its strategy to enhance renewable energy penetration. Additionally, the REPowerEU chapter mentions guidelines on the set up of RECs and references a future financing call that will dedicate EUR 78.5 million to support such communities specifically to tackle energy poverty. The target in terms of installed capacity is 155 MW.

An additional EUR 95.9 million is foreseen in the REPowerEU chapter for subsidised loans and EUR 36.6 million for VAT from the budget. This will be given out in the form of 45 per cent grant and 55 per cent subsidised loan to municipalities to develop energy poverty reduction RECs (at least 40 per cent of produced energy will have to be distributed to fight energy poverty, while the remaining can be given to municipality establishments such as schools, libraries etc.).

Tools to access information

The national law mentions that the Lithuanian Energy Agency prepares and publishes recommendations on the operating conditions of RECs on its website. Moreover, municipalities are required to evaluate and publicly publish on their websites information about the plots of land owned by them and other places where energy production facilities of the renewable resources energy community can be built or installed.

Regulatory capacity building for public authorities

Not addressed in the transposition.

NECP reporting on enabling frameworks

Not addressed in the transposition. Member States are required via the Governance Regulation (2018/1999) to report on their enabling frameworks for RECs by 15 March 2023.

Support Scheme adapted for RECs

The law states that investments by RECs in the acquisition and installation of new energy production facilities using renewable sources, for the construction or installation of which previously unused electrotechnical equipment is used, are encouraged from the following sources of support:

1) state budget allocations;

2) the funds of the Climate Change Program, as provided for in the Law on Financial Instruments for the Management of Climate Change of the Republic of Lithuania;

3) European Union support funds;

4) voluntary funds of foreign states intended to promote the use of renewable sources;

5) income received from the implementation of agreements on statistical energy transfers between the Republic of Lithuania and other Member States or joint projects between the Republic of Lithuania, other Member States and foreign states. After using these sources of support, the opportunity to use the incentive measure of a price supplement provided through the support scheme is lost.

The financing measures introduced by the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the REPowerEU chapter are analysed above.