On 26 July 2024, the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) adopted Resolution 1381, amending key provisions of the following agreements:
Producers should until 1 October 2024 align their agreements with the adopted amendments.
The new form of the additional agreements can be downloaded from the Guaranteed buyer's website:
The adopted amendments address two main areas:
Regarding penalties
Changes to the application of penalties have been made to all three of the agreements mentioned above.
Under the previous version of these agreements, the following penalties were stipulated for the Guaranteed buyer in the event of late or incomplete payments for electricity:
The agreement on participation in the balancing group of the Guaranteed buyer contains corresponding provisions, applying penalties to RES producers if they miss payment deadlines for their share of the cost of settling electricity imbalances with the Guaranteed buyer.
According to the NEURC's amendments, the penalty that may be imposed on both the Guaranteed buyer and RES producers is now set at 1% of the unpaid amount, replacing the previous rate of 7%.
However, according to NEURC Resolution No. 332 dated 25 February 2022, the accrual and collection of penalties under contracts concluded under the Law of Ukraine "On the Electricity Market" have been suspended for the duration of martial law in Ukraine and 30 days following its termination.
Regarding Guarantees of Origin
Amendments regarding guarantees of origin have been incorporated into the following agreements:
The amendments expanded the range of obligations of RES producers, requiring them to obtain monthly guarantees of electricity origin from the register and transfer them to the Guaranteed buyer. Additionally, the amendments stipulate that RES producers should acquire user status in the register of guarantees of origin and register their installations in accordance with procedures established by the Government and the NEURC.
If these obligations are not met, the Guaranteed buyer excludes the seller's generating units from the balancing group, and the agreements are suspended until the RES producer complies with these requirements.
Furthermore, the formula for calculating the cost of services to support electricity production from alternative sources has been revised. The cost of these services will be reduced by the total payments related to income from the sale of guarantees of electricity origin.
For more information, please contact Asters Partner Yaroslav Petrov or Senior Associate Kateryna Andarak.