Hogan Lovell OffshoreBook 2023 230809 OnlinePDF - Flipbook - Page 96
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France
For the offshore wind installations which
would not be implemented through a tender
procedure ("guichet ouvert"), only the floating installations awarded by specific French
or European calls for proposals are eligible to
the general, fixed price feed-in tariff scheme.36 Actually, this scheme is more generally
only applicable to some installations generating renewable energies that are less mature
and/or of a weak power.
Under this tender’s specifications, the CfD/
feed-in premium contract lasts 20 years
from the latest of these two dates:
Under the CfD/feed-in premium scheme,
created by the law dated 17 August 2015 relating to energy transition for green growth,
the electricity produced by the OWF is sold
by the operator on the electricity market
at the market price, but the producer gets
compensation depending on the reference tariff (instead of a price) that it fixed in
its bid. The producer’s income gained by
the sale of its electricity on the market is
completed by a bonus calculated as the
difference between the market price and the
reference tariff.
Both PPA and CfD contracts are standard
documents with limited risk transfer and
little if any negotiation margins for bidders.
Templates are drafted by EDF, approved by
the Minister in charge of energy and attached to the tender specifications, without
the possibility of a mark-up.
As under the CfD/feed-in-tariff scheme,
bidders propose reference tariffs in accordance with a capped tariff defined by the
tendering authority, and then conclude a
contract with EDF – called a feed-in premium contract ("contrat de complément de
rémuneration"). 37
The CfD/feed-in premium scheme has for
example been used in the Dunkirk OWF
project.
36 Articles L.314-1 3° and D.314-5 of the Energy Code.
37 Article L.311-13-2 of the Energy Code.
38 Articles R.311-27 and R.311-27-1 of the Energy Code.
(a) the effective completion date of the
entire installation; and
(b) 12 months after the longstop date imposed on RTE to make grid connection
facilities available for the OWF.
They have to be executed within six months
from the request of the successful bidder.
They are both attached to the offshore
wind installation and stay in force during the
installation’s life, within the duration stated
in the tender specifications. 38
Among the offshore wind installations,
only those implemented through a tender
process are eligible to a CfD. In other words,
no offshore wind installations implemented
outside a tender procedure’s scope can
benefit from an additional remuneration.
