HERA's Scope of Work

HERA's work is of special interest for the Republic of Croatia and HERA performs it based on the public authority.

HERA's duties, authorities and responsibilities are prescribed by the Act on the Regulation of Energy Activities, ("Official Gazette", No. 177/04 and 76/07), the Energy Act ("Official Gazette", No. 68/01, 177/04 and 76/07), HERA's Statute ("Official Gazette", No. 99/07) and other acts regulating particular energy activities.

Fundamental goals of regulation of energy activities are the following:

• Ensure objective, transparent and non-discriminative carrying out of energy activities;
• Take care of the implementation of principles of regulated access to the network/system;
• Adoption of methodologies for determination of tariff items of tariff systems;
• Establishment of efficient energy market and market competition;
• Protection of energy consumers and energy operators.

Regulation of energy activities promotes the following:

• Efficient and rational use of energy;
• Entrepreneurship in the energy sector;
• Investments in the energy sector;
• Protection of environment.

HERA performs the following activities:

• Providing opinion to the Ministry on the tariff system for production of electric power from renewable energy sources and cogeneration, on compensation for providing incentives for renewable sources and cogeneration and on compensation for stranded costs;
• Providing opinion to the Ministry on the proposed amounts of compensation for organization of the electric energy market;
• Supervising application of all tariff systems and prescribed compensations;
• Providing opinion to the Ministry on general conditions of energy supply;
• Providing opinion to the Ministry on procedures and criteria for approval and construction of generating facilities;
• Organization and carrying out of tendering procedures for construction of generating facilities;
• Providing opinion or consent to draft regulations in the energy sector for which HERA is authorized according to the Act on the Regulation of Energy Activities and other legislation regulating particular energy activities;
• Supervision of energy undertakings, pursuant to the provisions of The Energy Act and other legislation regulating particular energy activities;
• Supervising quality of services provided by energy undertakings;
• Publishing information and data on energy efficiency and the use of energy;
• Participating in the energy policy design;
• Cooperating with the ministries and competent inspection services in accordance with special laws;
• Collecting and processing of data related to the activities of energy operators;
• Submitting requests for misdemeanor offense proceedings;
• Settling disputes related to carrying out of regulated energy activities, in particular with regards to the following:
• Rejection of connection to the transmission network/transport system;
• Determination of compensation for connection and usage of the transmission network/transport system.

HERA monitors:

• Rules on managing and allocating interconnection capacity in co-operation with regulatory bodies of neighboring countries to which the electric power system and the gas system are connected;
• Congestion management within the national transmission network/system;
• Time periods within which the Transmission System Operator or the Distribution System Operator makes repairs and connections;
• Provision of appropriate information by the Transmission System Operator or the Distribution System Operator to stakeholders as regards connections, transmission network/system and distribution network and the allocation of the transmission capacity of interconnection, taking into account confidentiality of certain information;
• Separation of accounts, as provided for in the Energy Act and laws regulating individual energy activities, to prevent cross-subsidizing among generation, transmission, distribution and supply;
• Objective, transparent and non-discriminatory conditions and tariffs for connection of new electricity producers, especially taking into account costs and benefits of renewable energy sources, distributed generation and cogeneration;
• Extent to which the Transmission System Operator or the Distribution System Operator fulfils its tasks pursuant to the Energy Act and laws governing individual energy activities;
• Degree of transparency of market competition.

HERA sets out the methodologies for:

• tariff systems, without the amounts of tariff items;
• determination of the compensation for the connection to the transmission and distribution networks, and for increase in connected load;
• provision of energy balancing services in the electric power system;
• provision of natural gas balancing services in the gas pipeline system;
• access to natural gas storage, quantity of gas in the pipelines and other ancillary services in the gas pipeline system.

HERA issues:

• Licenses for carrying out energy activities, and also temporarily and permanently revokes these licenses;
• Rulings on granting the status of eligible producers, and also temporarily and permanently revokes these rulings.

HERA performs also the following activities:

• Taking decisions on invitations to tenders and selecting the most advantageous bidder for construction of production facilities up to 50 MW, in line with the Article 10, Electricity Market Act (“Official Gazette”, No. 177/04) and
• Submitting proposals to the Government of the Republic of Croatia on invitation to tenders and selecting the most advantageous bidder for building production facilities of 50 MW and higher, in line with the Article 10, Paragraph 1 of the Electricity market Act (“Official Gazette”, No. 177/04).

HERA provides:

• Opinions to the Ministry on the proposal of the amounts of tariff items;
• Opinions to the Government of the Republic of Croatia on the proposal of the amount of compensation for connection to the network and increase in connected power;
• Consent to energy undertakings for construction of direct lines.

Energy activities are:

1. Electricity generation
2. Electricity transmission
3. Electricity distribution
4. Electricity supply
5. Organizing of the electricity market
6. Gas production
7. Delivery and sale of natural gas from own production
8. Gas wholesale supply
9. Natural gas storage
10. Natural gas transport
11. Gas distribution
12. Liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal management
13. Gas supply
14. Thermal energy production
15. Thermal energy distribution
16. Thermal energy supply
17. Biofuel production
18. Oil derivatives production
19. Transport of oil by oil pipelines and other unmentioned means of transport from the Article 15, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 21 of the Energy Act
20. Transport of oil derivatives by product pipelines and other unmentioned means of transport from the Article 15, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 21 of the Energy Act
21. Transport of oil, oil derivatives and biofuel by road vehicle
22. Wholesale trade of oil derivatives
23. Retail trade of oil derivatives
24. Storage of oil and oil derivatives
25. Wholesale trade of liquified petroleum gas (LPG)
26. Retail trade of liquified petroleum gas (LPG)
27. Trading, mediation and representation on the energy market