Operational rules of Italy’s FER 2 Decree18 December 2024

Requirements to register for auctions

To be eligible to participate in auction procedures, renewable energy plants must meet the following requirements, among others:

1)  subjective requirements

a) the applicant must not be a company in financial difficulty;
b) there must be no grounds for exclusion under Art. 94 and 95 of Legislative Decree No. 36 of 31 March 2023 (“Public Contracts Code”);
c) the applicant must not be on list of companies for which a recovery order is pending as a result of a decision of the European Commission which has declared one or more incentives granted to the applicant unlawful and incompatible with the internal market;
d) solely with respect to biogas plants, the applicant must be an agricultural company (as defined in paragraph 1.2 of the Regulation); and
e) parties subject to anti-mafia verification pursuant to Legislative Decree No. 159 of 6 September 2011 must have complied with anti-mafia requirements.

2)  objective requirements

a) possession of a permit to build and operate the plant or, at the request of the producer, possession of a favourable environmental impact assessment, where applicable;
b) final accepted estimate for connection to the electricity grid;
c) pursuant to Art. 3, paragraph 4 of the FER 2 Ministerial Decree, access to the incentives is not permitted to plants that have commenced construction work prior to the publication of the ranking list (meaning the date of commencement of construction work relating to the project, as declared in the notice of commencement of works submitted to the competent authority, where applicable, or the date of the first commitment to order equipment or other commitment that renders the investment irreversible, whichever is sooner);
d) compliance with the dimensional requirements set out in Art. 3 of the FER 2 Ministerial Decree. It is understood that, for all types of energy source, the minimum power of the plant, in order for it to be eligible for the competitive procedures, must be equal to 1 kW;
e) compliance with the minimum environmental and performance requirements applicable by energy source;
f) with reference only to floating photovoltaic plants, modules must be tested and verified by accredited laboratories for specific tests in accordance with UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025; and
g) with reference to tidal, wave and other forms of marine energy plants, the technical/constructive type must be specified in the authorisation title and/or in the state concession.

Percentage reduction offered on reference tariff

The FER 2 Ministerial Decree provides that, to access auction procedures, applicants must offer a percentage reduction on the relevant tariff (but not lower than 2% for plants with a power capacity higher than 300 kW). This obligation does not apply to plants with power of up to 300 kW.

The reference tariffs set forth under auction procedures are specified in Annex 1 to the FER 2 Ministerial Decree, reduced by 3% yearly, starting from 2025.

For plants with a power output up to 300 kW, such reduction shall be applied from 2026.

Ranking list for auction procedures

The ranking list is based on data provided by applicants pursuant to the Decree of the President of the Republic 445/2000 and is published within 90 days from the closing date of auction procedures.  No downgrading is envisaged regarding ranking lists created following applying for an auction.

The ranking lists are created by GSE, within the limits of power quotas, based on criteria of the greatest percentage reduction offered with respect to the reference tariff and, in the event of quota exhaustion, application of the following priority criteria in hierarchical order:

a. facilities built in the areas identified as suitable in implementation of Art. 20 and 23 of Legislative Decree No. 199 of 8 November 2021; and
b. earlier date of completion of the application Request.

Pending the definition of eligible areas, applicants may, if necessary, demonstrate that they meet the requirements set forth in Art. 20, paragraph 8 and Art. 23, paragraph 3 of Legislative Decree No. 199 of 8 November 2021, which already identify certain areas as eligible ex lege.

Grounds for exclusion from auction procedure rankings

The circumstances that may constitute ground for exclusion are listed, by way of example but not limited to, in paragraph 3.4.1 of the Regulation. These include:

• failure to comply with the requirements or deadlines provided for in the reference regulations, the FER 2 Ministerial Decree, the Regulation and calls for tenders;
• non, late or underpayment of contributions to cover preliminary investigation expenses;
• failure to sign the declaration in lieu of affidavit, or uncertainty as to the content or origin of the Request, due to lack of signature or other essential elements; and
• failure to enclose an identity document of the signatory of the declaration in lieu of affidavit.

Waiving of useful position in the ranking list

Any waiver of the useful position obtained in the ranking list may be communicated to the GSE exclusively by means of the specific functionality available on the Portal.

Transfer of a plant prior to the participation in auction procedures

In case of transfer of ownership of a plant, even if it is a project facility, prior to participation in an auction, the following must have been transferred to the applicant at the time of application:

• authorisation/permit title or favourable environmental impact assessment;
• concession title for inland/maritime water or geothermal resources; and
• estimate/offer of connection to the grid with obligation to connect third parties.

Forfeiture of the ranking list

The circumstances that can, if proved by the GSE when examining notice of entry into operation, lead to forfeiture from the ranking list are included, by way of example but not limited to, in paragraph 3.4.3 of the Regulation:

(i)  entry into operation of the plant beyond the timeframe set out in the FER 2 Ministerial Decree;
(ii)  lack of requirements, priority criteria, discrepancies or false declarations;
(iii) commencement of work prior to the date of admission to the ranking list pursuant to Art. 3, paragraph 4 of the FER 2 Ministerial Decree; and
(iv) proof of grounds for exclusion under FER 2 Ministerial Decree.

Process for evaluating Requests

Paragraph 3.5 of the Regulations summarises the process for assessing Requests in the following order:

a) verification the documentation submitted by the applicant is complete;
b) possible integration of the documentation by the applicant, carried out after verification the documentation is complete;
c) verification that the data and information provded by the applicant and that in the mandatory documentation provided per Annex 2.a of the Regulation correspond; and
d) publication of the rankings.

if it proved that, regarding a request for access incentives, the applicant has provided fake data or documents or has made false or misleading declarations, without prejudice to the recovery of any amount already unduly received, GSE will apply the provisions of Decree of the President of the Republic 445/2000.

Verifications and checks

During the incentive period, GSE can run document checks and/or site inspections without prior notice to ensure plants are compliant.

To this end, the applicant shall retain for the entire incentive period all the documentation necessary for prove the information provided is correct and shall make it available to GSE if any checks are  conducted. If at the outcome of the control procedure, any violations set forth in Annex 1 of the Ministerial Decree of 31 January 2014 are proved, GSE  will order the forfeiture of incentives on the full recovery of the amounts already paid.