About Slovenia's national settings for energy communities

The topic of this presentation is the Slovene national settings for energy communities. This is primarily connected to the Economic aspect and the policy and regulations aspect of the new clean energy communities. The information in this presentation is taken from the NEWCOMERS project research activity, summarized in the deliverable titled Description of polycentric settings in the partner countries that you can find on this link: https://www.newcomersh2020.eu/upload/files/D2_2_newcomers_typology_of_new_clean_energy_communities_DEF.pdf We developed the content of this presentation with the expert support by prof. Jenny Palm and dr. Katharina Reindl from the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University in Sweden, the NEWCOMERS project consortium partner. We recommend you to first take a look at the introductory Content Item about the importance of national settings for the operations of energy communities. 2. CENTRAL PART – CONTENT In this presentation, we will briefly look at the key data about Slovenia. You can find more detailed data here. 1. Socioeconomic conditions Slovenia has the population of approx. 2 million on an area of 20140 km2. The urbanization rate is relatively low, with only 55 % living in urban areas. The unemployment rate in September of 2019 was 7.7 %, which puts Slovenia over the EU average of 6.2 % 2. Technical systems Now we're going to briefly look at Slovenia’s energy system, which is explained in much more detail here. a. Energy production and consumption Slovenia imports almost 47 % of the consumed energy. The biggest energy source in Slovenia is oil, followed by nuclear, coal and natural gas. The share of renewables is around 16 %. The country imports all of its oil derivates, hard coal, coke fuel and natural gas needs. There was a decline in both primary and final energy consumption, with the largest decline in transport. b. The electricity system The three largest electricity sources in Slovenia are nuclear, hydro and thermal power. Almost 83 % of electricity consumption came from domestic production. The biggest user in the industry, with a share of almost 50 %, followed by households and transport. The share of renewables is around 30 %, largely due to hydropower. c. The electricity grid and smart grids The electricity distribution system is owned by five distribution companies, owned mainly by the state. State-owned ELES operates the electricity transmission network and another state-owned company, SODO, supervises the electricity distribution system. The power market operator is Borzen d.o.o, which e.g. manages the Slovenian balance scheme. At the end of 2017, as many as 57% of consumers on the distribution system were already equipped with smart meters, making Slovenia a part of the leading countries in Europe regarding introducing advanced metering. d. The heating systems The heat supply is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, only 12.8% is produced by renewables. The biggest consumers are households, followed by businesses and other users as well as the industry e. Energy related emissions Energy supply and transportation are the largest CO2-emitting sector in the Slovenia. The share of renewable energy in transport is one of the lowest in the EU. 3. Institutional setting Now we're moving on to institutional setting, where we'll briefly discuss political goals and policies, tax schemes and prices in Slovenia. a. Political goals and national energy agreements When it comes to legislation and policies, Slovenia follows the EU goals and the Energy Agency of Slovenia refers to EU directives. The goals include e.g. to achieve 25% of RES in the gross final energy consumption and 10% in transport until 2020 (this the same as in other EU member states). The Energy Act from 2014 incorporates EU directives on electricity, energy efficiency and RES. There are other agreements and policies in place, such as The Energy Concept of Slovenia and the National Adaption Strategy. b. Performance on EU 2020 energy targets Slovenia has met the GHG emissions targets and energy efficiency targets, but not the goal to increase the RES share. c. Electricity market, policy and law Since 2001, the Slovenian electrical energy markets have been gradually deregulated. The purchases of electrical energy at the organized stock exchange started in 2001. The markets were opened to all non-household customers in July 2004. Both markets have been fully open since 1 July 2007. d. Subsidies and tax schemes One crucial climate energy policy for Slovenia (and the EU), is the “support scheme for RES and CHP”, with the aim to promote electricity production from RES and CHP. The scheme is supposed to increase the investments in environmentally friendly electricity-production technology. RES for electricity have also been encouraged with FiT and premium tariff. e. Electricity prices The price of electricity in Slovenia is slightly above EU average. 4. Actors In this section we will name the key public and market actors. All actors are described in detail in the deliverable. a. Institutional actors Slovenia is a parliamentary democracy republic with a multi-party system. The Ministry of Infrastructure, Directorate for Energy is responsible for drawing up energy policy and legislation. Local authorities are responsible for providing the construction and maintenance of municipal energy supply and regulation and maintaining power supply facilities. The Energy Agency is a regulatory authority ensuring the operation of the energy market. b. Market actors In 2017, nine companies were operating large facilities with a capacity of over 10 MW. Production companies in Slovenia differ in their generation and primary energy sources for electricity generation. Most of the major actors in electricity production are owned by the two parent companies, HSE and GEN Energija. c. Energy communities In Slovenia, the concept of energy communities is still in its infancy. There are two known energy cooperatives active; Krajcarca in Gorensjka and Zadruga Soncnih Elektrarn Slovenije, and some other decentralized renewable energy projects in which local communities are engaged.