BRATISLAVA, July 27, (WEBNOVINY) – The Regulatory Office for Network Industries (URSO) have inspected 372 companies operating photovoltaic power plants for now; they plan 18 more inspections next week. Problems were found with some 10 percent of scrutinized companies. “We found several faults during the inspections. What is bewildering is that the companies inspected received their final building approvals and went through all tests and in spite of this, the power facilities are yet uncompleted,” URSO head Jozef Holjencik informed on preliminary results of the inspections at the Wednesday news conference. According to him, panels, constructions were missing and switchboards were not connected, which means that the facilities have not been finished. They were not able of producing the declared amount of electricity as specific output of the panels was not installed, Holjencik continued. URSO also discovered administrative flaws, when some documents were missing but the plant was declared operational in spite of this detail.
The authority discovered similar faults in the networks of all three electricity distributors, among others in Trebisov, Michalovce, Rimavska Sobota or Komarno counties. The Brezno power plant has not been yet completed when the inspection took place. Holjencik explained that protocols from the inspection have not been finished yet and he therefore can not be more specific – URSO will specify concrete companies when the inspections will close and all protocols will be available. He also reminded that the overall installed capacity of all photovoltaic plants is 478 MW; providers where they found problems have installed capacity of 30 MW. There are 813 photovoltaic power plants in Slovakia out of which 299 companies requested price decisions in 2010 and 514 in 2011.
URSO chairman ensured that rates for the operating system will not increase despite the higher output. “In contrary, I expect it to be reduced. And we will keep our ground. It is only a matter of when this reduction will come,” Holjencik informed, yet the plan could become reality from September or from 2012. URSO received some 200 requests for price decisions before the end of June which was the deadline for launching photovoltaic power plants.
In the cases of photovoltaic power plants where shortcomings were found, URSO will decide whether the price decisions would be canceled or the proceedings will be suspended for those which have not gotten the decision yet. “We cooperate with law-enforcement bodies over this issue,” Holjencik informed, explaining he means the Office for Fight against Corruption. They have also prepared motions to be filed with the General Prosecution Office which they plan to ask for examining the proceedings of companies or authorities involved.
After all scheduled inspections are completed, URSO will find out which capacity the system will be short of and will then reduce electricity prices in either this or in the next year. “Approximately some 50 percent of rates of the operating system is photovoltaics,” Holjencik said, adding that without solar power plants, electricity price would drop approximately by half.
At the beginning of this week, Economy Minister Juraj Miskov informed that his ministry was planning to file a criminal complaint in association with speculations in connecting photovoltaic power plants to the national grid. As the minister told journalists, his department suspects that some solar power plants could have been connected at odds with the law-set criteria and benefit from generous feed-in tariffs. The situation is being examined by the State Energy Inspection; according to Miskov, final investigation report should be finished within two weeks. 94 inspections are said to have taken place, finding out that not all those involved have fulfilled all the legal criteria. “We will do everything we can so that every power plant connected in accordance with the law would not receive a price decision so that it can not be connected to the grid and could not receive subsidized prices of electric power. It is not possible for us to pay higher electricity prices only because of several cheaters,” Miskov stated. On July 1, the Economy Ministry requested a list of all completed and operational photovoltaic power plants from the distribution companies in order to avoid speculative connections. The deadline for installing subsidized photovoltaic plants was June 30, 2011.
SITA