In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of new PV installations in the electricity certificate system. The large volume has resulted in an increased administrative cost for the Swedish Energy Agency. They have therefore decided to introduce an annual fee of 200kr for the Cesar account for electricity certificates. The fee will be levied from July 1, 2021. At the same time, the value of electricity certificates has fallen and is now at rock bottom levels: SEK 2-3 per certificate. There is simply no economic interest in trading electricity certificates.
No longer profitable with electricity certificates
It is no longer profitable for solar owners to keep their Cesar account. If you have a 40 kW plant, you will receive about 30-40 certificates per year worth 80-100 SEK. Paying an annual fee of SEK 200 becomes a losing proposition. To make a profit, you need a photovoltaic installation larger than 250 kW. This means that most PV installations do not benefit from having an account for electricity certificates.
Cancel your Cesar account for electricity certificates
There is no need to keep your Cesar account for electricity certificates. The Swedish Energy Agency says on its website: “To avoid the account fee, you need to close your electricity certificate account before 31 May 2021. You do this by revoking your plant’s approval for electricity certificates. To close your account, there must be no certificates in the account, i.e. the balance in the account must be zero. You can either choose to sell your certificates or request to close the account with remaining certificates if the balance is less than 50 certificates. Please note that no compensation is paid in this case.”
Click on the link below to access the Energy Authority’s instructions on how to do this:
Keep the guarantees of origin for now
The Swedish Energy Agency has also proposed to the government to introduce an account fee for all producers in the guarantee of origin scheme. When withdrawing electricity certificates, you can also choose to withdraw approval for guarantees of origin. Don’t do that. We at Energy Commitment recommend that you need your guarantees of origin. They still have a value for electricity trading companies and show that the solar electricity you feed into the grid is indeed solar electricity.
