► Commissioning target date (which shall not exceed 36 months from the anticipated signing date of the CfD Agreement by the CfD counterparty) and Commencement target date for commercial operation;
► A project viability report which provides a general site description, technical characteristics of the proposed installed capacity of the project, detailed schedule of the project.
(iii) Section three: Financial Matters covers information on project funding, which can be in the form of comfort letters or approvals/authorizations from the applicant's control bodies regarding the use of its own funds. (iv) Section Four: Development, Construction, Operation, and Ownership covers a summary of the applicant's business activity to prove that it has experience in developing and operating similar projects. The applicant must demonstrate that it has experience in developing, constructing or operating comparable projects in Romania or globally in any period within the last 10 years. The technical offer will be reviewed first by the evaluation committee, and only after its approval will the evaluation of the financial offer proceed. Regarding the financial offer The applicant will submit the financial offer using Form F1. The letter of submission of the financial offer, which includes the applicant's identification data and the exercise price, is specified with 4 figures after the decimal point. In the event of a tie between the financial offers, the CfD scheme operator will rank the applicants according to the following criteria: (i) the offer including a grid connection permit (“ATR”), will have priority; (ii) if all offers have ATRs, the offer with the highest capacity will have priority; (iii) in case of a tie, the offer with the commissioning year closest to the year of the CfD tender will have priority; (iv) in case of a tie, the earliest submitted offer under the CfD tender will have priority. Regarding the tender participation guarantee To participate in the CfD tender, the applicant must include a participation guarantee in favour of the CfD scheme operator in the technical offer. Main characteristics of the participation guarantee: (i) it shall be expressed in RON having the equivalent value of EUR 20,000/MW for the proposed capacity; (ii) it will be constituted in the form of an irrevocable, unconditional and enforceable guarantee on first demand; (iii) it will be issued by a banking institution with a minimum credit rating of BBB according to S&P or equivalent; (iv) it will be valid for the duration of the funding application (i.e. approximately 6 months from the deadline date of submission of the funding application). If an applicant is approved, it will have to provide a performance guarantee in the equivalent in RON of the amount of EUR 75.000/MW for the project's installed capacity, converted at the NBR exchange rate applicable at the date of issue. In closing, we recall some of the provisions of the general framework of the CfD scheme, as follows:► The duration of financial support under the CfD scheme is 15 years from the payment start date. If a successful applicant does not commission the project by the Commissioning Target Date, the duration of the CfD financial support will be reduced by the period of delay in commissioning the project;
► Successful applicants must sell the energy produced under the CfD Agreement only on organized markets. There is also the possibility of selling part of the energy generated under the CfD Agreement via bilateral agreements, in which case the profit-sharing mechanism provided in HG 318/2024 becomes applicable. We covered the profit-sharing mechanism in the Legal and Tax Alert on the CfD scheme (available here);
► If the successful applicant fails to bring at least 90% of the allocated capacity into operation by the Commercial Operation Start Deadline, the CfD Agreement will automatically terminate and the CfD counterparty will enforce the performance guarantee;
► If the brought-into-service capacity of the project is less than 100% but greater than or equal to 90% of the proposed installed capacity awarded in the CfD tender, the period for which the CfD beneficiary will be entitled to receive CfD Difference Payments will be reduced in proportion to the percentage of the CfD capacity not brought into service;
► A successful applicant can designate a special-purpose vehicle to enter the CfD Agreement.
So far, the Ministry of Energy has not provided any information on the exact date of the CfD tender. Still, Order No. 1290/2024 mentions that the CfD tender calendar will be published on its website and on Transelectrica SA's website, which will include, but not limited to, the clarification period, the deadline for applications submission, the starting date for the evaluation of technical offers, the appeal period, the evaluation date of the financial offers, the estimated date of signing the CfD Agreements. We will get back to you with news when the competent authorities publish the CfD tender calendar.
