Energy, Energy Market, Latvia, Legislation
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Thursday, 25.04.2024, 07:57
Economics Ministry annuls renewable energy license to Rigas Energija
Businessman Maris
Martinsons was detained along with Bank of Latvia governor Ilmars Rimsevics and is suspected of
aiding and abetting Rimsevics in soliciting and accepting a bribe of at least
EUR 100,000 in the criminal case investigated by the Corruption Prevention
Bureau.
According to ministry’s estimates, the decision to revoke
license to Rigas Energija will
prevent the total costs of the mandatory purchase component (MPC), which is the
part of the electricity price used to subsidize green energy producers, from
growing by EUR 34.2 mln in the next decade.
Rigas Energija
belongs to MP Holdings (66%) which
further belongs to Profs Real Estate
(53.79%), which in its turn is owned by Martinsons’ children Mona and Marcis Martinsons.
The license to Rigas
Energija was annulled because it was discovered that the plant had not
started power generation by the time set by the legislation.
In total the Economics Ministry has revoked licenses to 18
cogeneration plants, allowing to prevent growth of MPC costs by about EUR 301.2
mln in total in the next ten years.
As reported, following the reports on possible fraud in
several cogeneration plants, the Economics Ministry recently conducted
inspections at several companies and found that they were not generating any
power. Most probably, the power plants had been turned on just for the
necessary 72-hour test period to get their licenses approved.
The Economics Ministry also has proposed amendments to the
Cabinet of Ministers regulations and increase control over the process.