A method for the correction of the feed-in tariff price for cogeneration based on a comparison between Croatia and EU Member States

The European Commission has adopted Directive 2004/8/EC on the promotion of cogeneration, which the EU Member States, as well as candidates including Croatia, were obliged to accept. Among other terms and conditions, the Directive requires certain support mechanisms, such as feed-in tariff prices and premiums added to market electricity prices. In this paper, the cost effectiveness of selling electricity at the feed-in tariff prices in the selected EU Member States is compared to selling it on the European electricity market, with or without premiums. The results of this comparison will indicate whether correction of the Croatian feed-in tariff price to a higher value would be justified. The cost effectiveness ratio of a cogeneration unit upgraded with mean reverting and jump diffusion processes is used for comparison. At the end of this paper, a method is suggested for the correction of feed-in tariff prices, with examples of corrected prices for the years 2008 and 2009. Such corrections have been proven to be justified and are compared to the feed-in tariff prices in most of the selected EU Member States.