08-Jul-2019

A study published in Amman on Tuesday recommended a more streamlined simplification of procedures for renewing renewable energy projects and coordination among various stakeholders to reduce the number of approvals required. 

This came during a workshop organized by the Edama Association for Energy, Water and Environment in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, during which the results of the study (decentralized energy in Jordan and ways to improve administrative procedures for obtaining approvals for renewable energy projects) were discussed under the patronage of Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Small and medium and achieve maximum social and economic returns. 

The study emphasized the importance of developing an electronic system through which the applications will be processed, processed, followed up, standardized procedures between the three distribution companies, standardization of work and legal provisions, and include all procedures and costs required by the applicant. 

The study also stressed the need to determine the period of electricity companies to answer the requests for the establishment of renewable energy projects and dispense with some of these documents required to submit the request to become available to the electricity companies and accelerate the procedures related to the start of calculation of electricity exported from the system of the network in addition to the expansion of exemptions granted to these projects to include all System input. 

Minister Zwati described the study as important and valuable to the energy sector, praising the efforts of the Edama Society and its partners in this effort. 

And stressed the importance of concerted efforts to achieve progress in the sector to serve the interests of all parties involved by taking into account the interests of these parties. 

"It is time to review these guidelines, evaluate the procedures followed and identify the lessons learned to maximize the benefits and take corrective action to address the negatives, if any," she said. 

"The study came at the right time to identify this situation and evaluate it from all organizational, technical, economic and social aspects, which is in line with the policy and directions of the government in the periodic review of the legislation in force in order to develop the sector to keep abreast of developments. "We are currently reviewing and updating the energy sector strategy in the light of the successes we have achieved together with the private sector - which was part of this success - in developing large-scale renewable energy projects to generate electricity and feed the grid," Zawati said. 

The Ministry has achieved the desired goal in the strategy and we now have about 1200 MW contribute about 12% of electricity generated and will double this ratio by 2022. 

She added that the number of consumers bound to reduce the self consumption of electricity on the transit instructions was 147 consumers with a total capacity of 136 MW, while the number of consumers linked to the net system of measurement 11644 consumers with a total capacity of 279 MW until the end of May 2019. 

She highlighted the important role of the Renewable Energy Fund in promoting the culture of using renewable energy and rationalizing energy through programs including schools in the various governorates of the Kingdom and providing citizens with solar heaters and renewable power systems for electricity generation. She pointed to the role of the Ministry's rural villas in providing beneficiaries of the National Aid Fund Stressing that the ministry aims to provide 12 thousand homes of beneficiaries of the National Aid renewable energy systems to cover the needs of electricity.

With regard to the study and its results and recommendations, Minister Zwati said, considering the returns of small renewable energy projects from the economic and social benefits to the local community of individuals, companies and local industry, the Ministry will pay attention to the recommendations of this study and will review with the concerned authorities, To instructions taking into account the simplification of procedures and reduce the number of approvals and increased transparency and speed of delivery. 

Minister Zwati urged the Edama Society and its partners to work together with the Authority and related parties - the electricity distribution companies - to study the recommendations and come out in a consensual form of the regulations in this field. 

Dr. Duraid Mohsena, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said that this study comes in the context of ongoing efforts by Idama to bring the voice of private sector workers to decision makers. He added that Edama believes that the continuation of the march of the renewable energy sector currently requires support of small and medium-sized systems which have a significant impact on the strengthening of businesses and support of companies operating in the sector and thus will be reflected on small consumers so that will reduce the cost of them substantially and will contribute to the preservation of the environment. 

"Jordan has already started moving from a traditional energy system to a renewable energy-based system," said the regional climate program coordinator for the Friedrich Ebert-Friesske-Wenger project. The question at this stage remains how can this transition be designed? 
According to Vineger, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation proposes a transitional model for decentralized energy, which supports the emergence of small Jordanian companies, reduces electricity bills for disadvantaged communities and public institutions, and helps solve the challenges of the Jordanian electricity grid. 

She confirmed that this proposal came in partnership with the Edama Association as one of the most important stakeholders, and the European Renewable Energy Association as an expert from Europe. For his part, the supervisor of the European renewable energy program Matte Hits the importance of the study in creating jobs and achieve savings in electricity bills for individuals and institutions. "We had the honor to cooperate with the Edama and Friedrich Ebert Foundation and to share our advocacy efforts.

We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Edama Society during the launch of the study recommendations, which is one of the important steps at the beginning of accelerating the partnership in energy development in Jordan and Europe.

 The Vice Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Authority, Wajdan Al Rabdi, commented on the results of the study, stressing that the Commission is open to all opinions and observations and is ready to study the proposals in order to improve performance and serve all parties, stressing that the majority of the outputs of the study worked on it during the past five years. 

The ceremony was attended by representatives of electricity distribution companies, representatives of companies investing in the sector, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Authority.