Until this April more than five million certificates were generated in the course of three periods. However, this is probably not enough to achieve and prove the minimum power amount of 8 %, which the power suppliers and traders have to draw from the certificate trade.

Small hydropower plants contribute a great deal to environmental protection! Almost 2,000 of these plants generate approx. 8 % of Austrian electricity. The branch itself is characterised by a huge number (80 %) of small plants, which, however, only have a share of about 10 % in the total output. There are only a few plants with an output of over 1 MW (10 %), however, their share of 65 % in the total output of small hydropower plants is considerable. The major part of small hydropower plants is situated in Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Carinthia.

Today every plant operator has an account in the central data base register. The system was developed and implemented within 6 months; the market participants were prepared for its functioning in the framework of an extensive road show (November 2001). Naturally, support is available via Internet.

Great demands on network operators

The market participants have rapidly become accustomed to the system. With its start on January 1, 2001, more than 3,000 users got access to the database, which they presently use several times a week.

To make the utilisation as efficient as possible further improvements and alterations are being carried out at the request of the users. For network operators the new system means much more work, which is common in liberalised markets. They have to feed in the energy amounts supplied by small hydropower plants every month ? an important point, since the certificates are generated on the basis of these energy amounts. It quickly turned out which network operator had adequately got prepared for this task.

The "model" company Kelag with its many plants was already able to transmit its amounts on the 3rd day! Other network operators were not able to supply their data even after almost two weeks. While the large network operators use on-line data transmission, small ones, which only administrate a few plants in their network, feed the data directly into the data base.

The first quota fulfilment will be verified by the end of the third quarter, i.e. by the end of September 2002. Since many suppliers still do not have enough certificates, it can be expected that trade will get stronger by the month of June. Special accounts have been created in the central data base register for emporiums. The establishment of the Graz Electricity Exchange EXAA, which will begin trading with small hydropower certificates as of June, will soon be completed.

Many small plant operators, whose core business is not the power business, continue to sell their power including certificates to the usual energy supply company, and many a larger plant operator stores his certificates for the moment to wait for higher prices. The largest hurdle for the time being is the equalisation levy, which differs from province to province. Particularly the ordinance on the height of production costs in Vienna has rapidly shown the limits of the system.

Additional provincial regulations such as the obligation to accept delivery with smaller plants, do not represent a problem for the functioning of the principle. A possibility to find an Austrian-wide regulation for the equalisation levy will occur in the course of the implementation of the EU Directive "Renewable Energies". (Source: aqua press Int. 2/2002)

Information & Contact:

Elektrizitaets-Control GmbH
Rudolfsplatz 13a
1010 Vienna
phone +43 1 247 24 0
fax +43 1 247 24 900

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