The Ministerial Decision, which promotes self-consumption of energy, either individually by all citizens and businesses of the country or jointly (apartment buildings), was signed by the Minister of Environment and Energy, Theodore Skylakakis and the deputy minister Alexandra Sdoukou.

As pointed out by MINISTRY OFthrough the new self-consumption scheme, the leadership of the Ministry of Environment and Energy gives the possibility to all consumers of the country, in facilities located at all voltage levels of the electrical system, to offset simultaneously the quantities they consume in their facilities with the quantities produces one or more Renewable Energy Sources (RES) stations, and to receive compensation for excess energy, according to market prices.

According to the main provisions of the decision, the RES stations may belong to themselves or to a third party, to be installed either in the same place as the consumption facility (net billing) or anywhere else in the network (virtual net billing), and the third party , owner of the station, can guarantee a fixed selling price of the energy. With this capability, energy companies install RES systems, with or without storage, to offset self-consumer consumption, further liberalizing the retail energy market.

Energy consumers will now actively participate in market developments, taking advantage of cheap energy from RES and they will avoid the risk of energy price increases in their tariffs.

Especially for residential self-consumers up to 10.8 kW, it is possible to receive the benefit of excess energy as a discount on their provider’s electricity bill.

For businesses and larger consumers installing systems above 10.8 kW, the excess energy revenue they receive from the market will go directly into their bank account.

At the same time, with the implementation of collective self-consumption, apartment owners of an apartment building will be able to install photovoltaic systems either on the roof of the apartment building or anywhere else, provided that they legally own the use of the space.

The transition from the net metering scheme to the new net billing program will be done with simplified procedures and with a simple notification to the network administrator.

Distortions of the previous self-consumption scheme have been limited by actions such as changing the settlement time of offset quantities from three years to one year.

Additionally, under the new net billing scheme the synchronization of energy production with consumption reflects the actual cost of energy being offset without creating market deficits.

“The implementation of self-consumption is a first priority for the government and follows the directives of the European Union for greater participation of energy consumers in the market (prosumers)”, emphasizes the Ministry of the Interior. At the same time, the Ministry of Environment and Energy strongly incentivizes the installation of storage (batteries), which will maximize the economic benefit of the consumer/self-producer and help the same electricity system to absorb more RES, freeing up valuable electrical space.