Filenews 2 February 2021 - by Chrysanthos Manolis
On the occasion of yesterday's debate on the budgets of EAC, RAEK and TSO, in the Finance Committee, the ACPL, through Stefanos Stefanos, has put in place the need to call for a tender for the licensing of photovoltaic parks at the lowest possible production price per kilowatt hour. At the same time, Mr. Stefanou criticises the EAC for a lack of growth in the production of electricity from the use of RES but also the government because, according to the ACPL, instead of helping EAC to penetrate more photovoltaics, it makes it more difficult for it.
In particular, following the discussion of the three budgets in the House, ACPL spokesman and finance committee member Stefanos Stefanou said that the advent of natural gas for electricity generation purposes has been hopelessly delayed, with the main responsibility of the government, resulting in households and businesses paying very dearly for electricity. It also pointed out that there are serious problems in promoting investments for RES and referred to the following two reasons:
- The government is not proceeding with the promotion of a tender for RES. If this is done, the cost of generating electricity from RES will be reduced.
- EAC has not entered the RES sector decisively. It is the responsibility of the government to do so at the same time, instead of making it difficult for the EAC to do so, it must help it.
The Government and RAEK consider that at this stage the priority is to complete the preparation by the TSO and the EAC of the operation of the competitive electricity market and not to call for a tendering procedure, without excluding it at some stage.
With a deficit the EAC
The EAC budget foresees total expenditure of EUR 1.2 billion. (compared to EUR 1,4 billion in 2020) and total revenues of EUR 798 million( (compared to around ONE billion in 2020). However, the actual deficit that may arise is estimated at EUR 161 million. This will be covered by the Agency's cash reserves.
EAC's main expenditure for 2021 will be staff remuneration (128,745,000, approximately EUR 7,5 million more than the 2020 budget), operating costs (97,500,000, approximately EUR 20 million less than the 2020 budget), fuel costs, electricity purchase (from RES) and market operator (447,295,000, approximately EUR 220 million less than the 2020 budget), taxation and financing costs (14,500,000) , capital expenditure (269,197,000) and unforeseen expenditure (231,600,000). In particular, the deficit contribution to the Employees' Pension Fund was estimated for 2021 to be EUR 12,5 million. Euro. Unforeseen costs (EUR 231.6 million) are committed to cover any emergencies in additional or more expensive fuel and, if available, will be recovered through the electricity bills.
EAC's revenue from the sale of electricity is estimated to reach EUR 744 million in 2021. The amount of the aid was EUR 11,6 million, while a total of EUR 11,6 million was used to will come from the sale of desalination water.
