The Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency (HERA) has laid the groundwork for reforming the rules on green electricity self-consumption in Croatia. The framework is not a finished set of regulations but, as HERA stresses, should be understood as a first step. The paper identifies the obstacles that have so far prevented citizens and businesses from generating and consuming their own electricity.
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These obstacles range from a lack of information, unclear legal texts and outdated administrative procedures to technical shortcomings at the distribution network operator HEP-ODS. According to HERA, the support framework also no longer reflects market developments towards self-consumption, particularly of solar power at the point of generation.
Action needed in the years ahead
The document sets out the political and regulatory action required in the coming years, with concrete timeframes for when workable self-consumption rules must be in place. This concerns in particular the transposition of the 2024 EU directive on electricity market design and the revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) from 2023, both of which must be translated into Croatian law. HERA intends to use this process to place self-consumption on a solid legal footing.
Adapting the Electricity Market Act
Among other things, this requires amending the Electricity Market Act to govern the rights and obligations of active customers and the allocation of energy in shared solar installations. At present, these matters are inadequately regulated and scattered across several pieces of legislation.
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The guaranteed minimum price for surplus electricity fed into the grid is also to be decoupled from administrative setting and linked to the market, as required under RED III. At the same time, HERA argues for ending the state cap on electricity prices, since the subsidy removes any genuine economic incentive to consume self-generated power.
Sharing electricity
A further focus is the shared use of electricity from solar installations in buildings. Co-owners can join together as a joint active customer, operate a solar installation collectively and divide the electricity generated among themselves. The technical infrastructure for this energy allocation has been in place at HEP-ODS since the second quarter of 2026 – an important development, since legal provisions alone are not enough without the administrative and technical groundwork to support them.
A national office for citizen energy is also to be established, modelled on the Coordination Office for Energy Communities in Austria. It will serve as a central point of contact for citizens, municipalities and investors, providing guidance documents and model contracts and cooperating with ministries and regional development agencies. The office is to be set up by the end of 2026.
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Reforming connection processes
Grid connection processes represent a further bottleneck and are in urgent need of reform. HERA is calling for the connection fee methodology to be revised in the first half of 2027, with HEP-ODS's connection rules to follow. It also criticises the fact that a simplified registration procedure for small installations, though provided for by law, is neither described on the HEP-ODS website nor supported by the relevant forms. The responsible ministry has similarly failed to set up the investor contact point required under Article 29 of ZOIEVUK, a gap to be remedied by the end of 2026.
Creating financing options
On the financing side, HERA is calling for low-interest loans, state guarantee schemes and local financial instruments provided by municipalities and counties, with the aim of bringing low-income households and public institutions such as schools and kindergartens into the energy transition. The target date for both programmes is the end of 2027
The "Incentive framework for promoting and facilitating the development of self-consumption of energy from renewable sources" is available for download on HERA's website. (su)
