Small hydropower plants are defined by the law as power stations with a capacity of maximally 10 MW. In Austria we have a total of about 1,900 small hydropower plants with an output of electrical energy of 4,000 GWh, with which over one million households can be supplied. This corresponds to about eight percent of the total electrical energy produced in Austria and to the atomic energy amount imported from the Eastern neighbour countries or the production of three large Danube power plants.

Legal bases for small hydropower in Austria as of January 1, 2003 With the "Elektrizitätswirtschafts- und –organisationsgesetz" (Electricity management and organisation law) Austria is focusing more on renewable energy sources: About 70 percent of the Austrian electricity is generated by domestic hydropower. The EU Directive on the promotion of renewable energy sources provides for an increase of the present share of renewable energy sources of 70 percent to 78 percent until 2008. The relevant legal framework conditions are provided by the "Ökostromgesetz" (eco-electricity law) which also massively affects small hydropower.

The promotion scheme in detail

Trading with certificates expires by the end of 2002; at the same time the feeding-in regulations applied in many EU-countries will come into force for small hydropower, too. The new eco-electricity law limits the total volume of available subsidies for the Austrian small hydropower with an allowance of maximally 0.16 Cent per kWh supplied to the final consumer.

The Austrian electricity consumption amounts to about 50 TWh, which results in a subsidy of about € 80 million that has to be apportioned among all small hydropower plants in Austria. Thus, every kWh from a small hydropower station can be subsidised with 2 Cent per kWh on the average. In addition to this subsidy the small hydropower plant operators receive the market price of about 2.20 Cent/kWh.

In spite of the principally elaborate eco-electricity law the OEVFK (Austrian Association promoting small hydropower) points to the fact that the constitutional limitation will hardly help achieve the targets of the eco-electricity law. Larger small hydropower plants will be able to do with 4.2 Cent, but for the 1,400 small plants, which account for 2.2 TWh of the total energy generated in small hydropower stations, this tariff is definitely too low. Therefore the larger plants should waive a cost-covering remuneration in order to enable smaller plants to survive at all.

The OEVFK considers small hydropower to be considerably disadvantaged when comparing them to the other eco-electricity producers under the eco-electricity law.

The limited subsidies for small hydropower do not cover – as provided by the eco-electricity law – the production costs for energy from small hydropower. Studies have shown that contributions of 6-8 Cent/kWh – depending on the structure of the hydropower plant – would be necessary.

• The limited subsidy cannot be raised for small hydropower – for the other eco-electricity producers, however, an adjustment as of 2005 is possible.
• The provinces have the possibility to promote new technologies, but small hydropower has explicitly been excluded.
• As to the target increase of the share of renewable energies from 70 to 78 percent small hydropower has been almost completely excluded (shall only be increased from 8 to 9 percent).

Contact & Information:

Österreichischer Verein zur Förderung
von Kleinkraftwerken
(Austrian Association promoting small hydropower)
Johann Taubinger
Landesprecher Niederösterreich
Museumstrasse 5
1070 Wien email: oevfk@aon.at