09-12-2022

Selling excess energy produced by self-consumption will be easier

According to a finance source, the Portuguese government is preparing to alleviate bureaucratic costs for consumers who intend to sell surplus energy to the grid from self-consumption systems, as well as simplify the collection of value added tax (VAT).

The process of selling excess energy from self-consumption has become simpler.

This measure to simplify the process of selling excess energy was approved at the meeting of the Council of Ministers on the 30th of November, however it has not yet been promulgated by the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

This new legislation, after approval, will apply the VAT self-assessment mechanism and allow the transfer of VAT assessment, invoicing and invoice communication obligations to the supplier responsible for purchasing energy.

At the moment, the most popular system of self-consumption energy production is that of photovoltaic solar panels, systems that had their heyday with support from the environmental fund.

This type of production without accumulating energy in batteries normally generates excess energy produced that can be sold to the electricity grid, however this process is not intuitive and has bureaucratic costs, since you have to invoice for the sale and pay VAT.

A more simplified system will benefit small producers.

This legislative change will especially benefit small producers, as it will pass on the bureaucratic costs to the companies purchasing the surplus energy, since the person who settles the VAT, issues the invoices and communicates them effectively becomes the company that buys the surplus.

The measures referred to here will apply whenever the producer is not a VAT taxable person or when he practices only this type of taxable transaction, safeguarding the validation of transactions by the seller of goods or service provider.

The communiqué released by the Council of Ministers and approved on November 30 states that: “…introduces measures to ease various declaration, payment and invoicing obligations, and simplifies tax obligations arising from the sale to the grid of surplus electricity produced for self-consumption ”.

(News taken from the website www.portal-energia.com on December 9, 2022)