Slovenia

Overall assessment

Updated December 2022

Slovenia transposed the Directives, including most provisions on energy communities in July and October 2021 with the Acts n° 2570 on the promotion of the use of renewable energy sources (ZSROVE) and n°3349 on Electricity Supply (ZOEE). In line with the Directives copied in the national legislation, Renewable Energy Sources Communities (RESC) specificities should be taken into account in support schemes and in urban and local planning strategies. Energy community of citizens (ECC) are also eligible to be active in most markets and activities, but cannot own or manage a distribution network. The implementing rules specifying how RESC can set up collective self-consumption within the community have been defined in March 2022.

Overall, the transportation provides a basis for the development of enabling measures and a support scheme for energy communities. However, concrete measures on particular aspects of the enabling framework are still missing, while specific measures for RESCs have not yet been introduced in the national support scheme for renewables.

Detailed assessment

Assessment of obstacles and potential for development of ECs

Article 44 of the Act 2570 mentions that it is the responsibility of the Ministry to undertake such an assessment.

Removal of unjustified regulatory & administrative barriers

Article 44 of the Act 2570 establishes a community enabling programme adopted by the Ministry every three years “to promote and facilitate the development of RESC based on an assessment of obstacles and opportunities for the development of the RESC.” This enabling programme must ensure that unjustified obstacles in regulations and other acts as well as administrative obstacles are eliminated. This is a copy paste from EU Directives, and requires further articulation.

DSO duties around cooperation with ECs and facilitation of energy sharing

The DSO and the electricity operator cooperate with the communities in order to facilitate energy transfers within these communities. According to 867/2022, the DSO registers energy communities and updates the charge in the registry free of charge. According to its article 8(8), the DSO performs all tasks on collective self-consumption free of charge for the implementation of the self-supply contract to the supplier, the producer and the RESC. It also provides free of charge all the data necessary to perform the contractually agreed calculation of the supplied electricity in the accounting period.

Fair, proportionate, and transparent registration & licensing procedures

According to Article 44(2)(c) of the Act 2570, RES should benefit from fair, proportionate and transparent procedures, including registration procedures. In that respect, RESC are considered as a producer of electricity according to Article 43(4) c). As such, they can ask for the issuance of declarations for production for the installations and certificates of origin of the electricity. No details are provided on the licensing for activities other than production.

Incentives connected to network tariffs based on a CBA

According to Article 44(2)( c), RESC should benefit from network fees that reflect costs, as well as appropriate charges, thus ensuring that they contribute adequately, fairly and balanced to the sharing of total costs in the system. In addition, article 124(3) of the Electricity Supply acts states that the network fee is calculated separately for each transfer point and separately for energy sent to the network and energy received from the network. This applies to all users of the system, regardless of whether they are part of the energy community of citizens or the community in the field of renewable energy sources from the law governing renewable sources. The Agency may not unjustifiably discriminate against system users when determining tariff items for network charges.

Non-discriminatory treatment as market participant

RESC should be treated equally in terms of their activities, rights and obligations that they have as market participants. It is not mentioned how the equal treatment will be guaranteed.

Accessibility to low-income & vulnerable households

Participation should be available to all final customers, including those in low-income households or vulnerable households. This provision provides a good basis for developing measures to help low-income and vulnerable households from participating in energy communities. However, concrete measures are needed.

Tools to access finance

The Article 44 (f) states that tools are available for easier access to financing – copy paste

Tools to access information

The Article 44 (f) states that tools are available for easier access to information – copy paste

Regulatory capacity building for public authorities

The same Article 44 announces that regulatory support and support for capacity development are provided to municipalities and their bodies in enabling and establishing RESC and in facilitating their direct participation in them.

NECP reporting on enabling frameworks

The main elements of the enabling program and the assessment of their implementation shall be included in NECP updates and progress reports in line with Regulation 2018/1999/EU.

Support Scheme adapted for RECs

Article 44(4) of the same Act acknowledges that when creating support programs for the use of renewable energy sources, without prejudice to the EU rules on state aid, the particularities of the renewable energy community are taken into account in order to give them the same opportunities to obtain a declaration, certificates of the origin of electricity and to apply for support as other market participants. However, no concrete measures have been taken to operationalize this requirement.

Article 43(4)(d) of the Act 2570 states that RESC are eligible for support under Articles 15 and 20. These articles do not introduce any specific measure for RESC project, the latter are treated the same as the rest of the renewables producers.

As such, energy support schemes methods and levels account for the price of the technology but also other factors including the social aspect, environmental production, use of natural material, technology neutrality and regional development. Subsidies can be allocated directly for installations up to 500 kW, and after a tendering procedure for installation of less than 10 MW. They can be eligible for guaranteed purchase of produced electricity fed in the grid (< 500 kW) and financial assistance. In addition, investment grants are planned to support the take-off of self-consumption for the purchase and installation of production and storage facilities.

RES are eligible to benefit from the same support schemes as collective self-consumption schemes defined in the Slovenian regulation.