The Legal Base of a Wind Project
A wind energy project is subject to the conditions defined by Article 32 of the Georgian Law on Energy and Water Supply: the construction, maintenance and operation of electricity generation objects and associated devices, and their connection to the network, must comply with the technical standards and other mandatory conditions established by legislation and by the network rules, including the requirements of environmental protection, public safety and the protection of property. Generation, apart from the cases envisaged by the law, is subject to mandatory licensing. For a wind park this matters acutely: territory scale, turbine siting and connection parameters must all be designed to these requirements. Licensing rests on the Law on Licenses and Permits, the energy law and the Commission's licensing rules, applied together.
Acceptance into Operation
Under Article 36, an enterprise that has built a wind power plant or reconstructed it, increased its capacity and connected the object to the network must apply for acceptance into operation to the operator of the system to whose network it is connected; representatives of the transmission system operator participate in the trial run and complex testing. Unless the network rules provide otherwise, the operator declares consent or refusal within no more than 90 calendar days from the trial run. During the acceptance period no license is required, the purchase and sale of the electricity produced is regulated by the market rules, and once the object has been accepted, generation is allowed on the basis of a license or a confirming document.
Transmission Network Development Planning
Article 53 regulates network development through ten-year planning: the transmission system operator annually develops or updates the ten-year development plan for the next 10 calendar years. The plan covers supply and demand indicators, the infrastructure to be built or improved over the next 10 years, the investments of the following 3 years, project deadlines, and information on the integration of new generation objects, including renewable energy sources, into the network. The draft plan, after consultations, is submitted no later than 1 October of the relevant year to the Ministry and the Commission; the Commission justifies its remarks within 2 months of receiving the draft, and the Ministry approves the plan with the Government's consent by the end of the year. For an investor the plan shows where network development is planned and where connection preconditions may arise; where an investment is not implemented the Commission may hold an open tender, in which a generation, supply or trading company cannot act as investor. Projects tied to state policy targets cannot be removed from the plan, though their deadlines may change and their costs may be financed from the budget or reflected in the tariff. The operator must facilitate investment projects and provide investors with all necessary information, including on connection of new devices; financial arrangements require the Commission's prior consent.