The European Commission has authorised, on Thursday 4 March, projects to support the production of electricity from high-efficient cogeneration installations connected to district heating networks in Slovakia.
Margrethe Vestager, the Executive Vice-President for Competition Policy, said that the Slovak measure, which is worth more than €1 billion, “will provide an important contribution to EU energy and climate objectives without unduly distorting competition”.
Slovakia notified the Commission of its plan to support combined heat and power (CHP) installations connected to district heating networks in the country.
It aims to increase or maintain the high efficiency of existing high-efficient cogeneration installations, to incentivise the switchover of these installations from coal to natural gas or renewable sources and to stimulate investment in new high-efficient cogeneration facilities.
Beneficiaries will be selected through a tendering procedure for new installations with a capacity of 1 megawatt (MW) or higher.
Installations above 250 kilowatts (kW) that are selected will receive aid in the form of a feed-in premium. Those under 250 kW will benefit from a fixed feed-in tariff (guaranteed price for the electricity produced).
Coal-fired installations are not eligible to receive this aid. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)