Wind, solar parks in Crimea accept lower power rates - report

Aug 11, 2014 - Crimea’s solar and wind power producers have agreed to sell their output at some RUB 3.42 (USD 0.095/EUR 0.07) per kWh, which represents less than a quarter of what they got when Crimea was still part of Ukraine.

The off-take rates are below the tariffs for electricity imports from Ukraine, Russian daily Kommersant said on Friday, citing Crimea’s deputy head of tariffs and pricing Alla Chekalina.

In March, when Crimea became part of Russia, Ukrainian state-run utility Energorynok terminated its power purchase agreements (PPAs) for solar, wind and conventional power plants on the peninsula. For months, renewable power producers awaited some clarity as regards to their power off-take options. One of the biggest players on the local green energy market -- Vienna-based Activ Solar GmbH, suspended all project activities in Crimea in the spring due to the high uncertainty, Bloomberg said in March. The company has around 300 MW of installed solar parks on the peninsula.

Crimea’s energy minister Sergei Yegorov, who is the former deputy director general of Activ Solar Ukraine, has helped achieve the compromise decision on the lower power purchase tariffs, Kommersant said Friday, citing unnamed sources. According to the paper, it is not clear how Activ Solar’s parks will operate under the new rates.

(RUB 10 = USD 0.277/EUR 0.206)

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