The Green Certificate mechanism, provided for by Ministerial Decree of 6 July 2012, has been substituted by a new form of incentive as of year 2016. The subjects that have already been recognised a Green Certificate (holders of plants with RES-E qualification) will maintain the benefit for the remaining concessional period, but in a different form. In fact, according to the new mechanism, GSE pays a tariff in Euros on the net production of electricity additional to the revenues deriving from the increase in value of electricity (which can take place through the Simplified Purchase &Resale Arrangements or through the operator’s recourse to the Free Market).

In order to pass on to the new incentive mechanism, the holders of RES-E plants, that have already been recognized a Green Certificate, must sign an Agreement with GSE entitling them to benefit from the incentive tariff for the remaining period. The Agreement must be entered into through a new IT application: GRIN - Gestione Riconoscimento INcentivo (Management of the Incentive Recognition).

This mechanism represents an alternative to the green certificates. It consists in tariffs for the electricity fed into the grid whose value includes both the incentive component and the increase in value component of the electricity fed into the grid.

This incentive mechanism for electricity produced by renewable sources and similar was introduced by the Inter-ministerial Committee’s resolution Prezzi6/92. It was a form of remuneration through a tariff whose value was periodically updated. Currently, it is no longer possible to access this incentive mechanism.

These are incentives for electricity generation from RES-E plants, other than photovoltaic solar ones, with a capacity of at least 1 kW.

This tool allows us to purchase and resell the electricity to be fed into the grid paying producers a minimum guaranteed price for every kWh purchased. Producers with small-sized plants and a nominal electrical capacity up to 1 MW, benefit from GSE’s guaranteed minimum prices for the first 2 million kWh per year fed into the grid, without prejudicing the possibility to receive more if the hourly zonal prices prove to be more advantageous.

Through this mechanism, those who generate electricity from renewable sources feeding it into the grid and at the same time purchase electricity from the grid for personal consumption, benefit from the compensation of the economic value of what produced and fed into the grid with the economic value of what purchased and consumed in a period differing from that of production.

Considering the relevance of the incentives allocated and our guiding principles of transparency and efficiency, we plan and manage a complex credit recovery policy based on:

• the recalculation of the incentives due
• the adoption of all the measures necessary to guarantee the collection of the amounts to be paid back
• payment requests for the amounts due
• compensations with following payments or other commercial consignments to be implemented
• payment reminders and, in the last resort, recovery through legal steps.

These usually concern the annulment of the action due to the non-recognition or lower recognition of an incentive for the production of renewable energy or the non-recognition of the High Performance Cogeneration qualification or of the incentives for the Renewable Energy for Heating and Cooling Support Scheme.

Our participation in the electricity market is aimed at optimizing the sale of the electricity fed into the grid by operators involved in the various incentive systems, so as to reduce to the minimum the charges at the community’s expense. The main activities falling within our competence are:

• The forecast of the electricity fed into the grid;
• The supply through the interaction with GME’s platform
  
• The verification of the energy and economic consignments with reference to unbalances and transactions with the electricity market.

The accuracy of the forecasts allows us to operate in the market with effectiveness minimizing the difference between what is supplied and what is actually fed into the grid, thus supporting the functions involved in electricity supply and dispatching.

In order to guarantee the security and balance of the power system, wind plants are subject to TERNA’s dispatching commands which can lead to the reduction or zeroing of electricity generation.

The “lost" generation, called “Curtailed wind power generation," is the amount of electricity not generated by a wind plant as a consequence of the implementation of the dispatching commands.

Our task is to establish the amount of electricity that would have been generated by the halted plants for the following estimate and remuneration.