The Government has reformulated the rules for calculating the remuneration for electricity produced by biomass plants, which have already come into force, in order to incentivize the management of forest fires, announced today the Ministry of Environment.
With the publication of Ordinance No. 114/2026/1 in the Official Journal on March 17, in force since March 18, biomass electricity production plants will be remunerated through a new form of calculation that “gives greater value to the contribution each plant makes to the integrated management of forest fires,” the Ministry of Environment and Energy explained in a press release sent to newsrooms today.
The ordinance that until now fixed the remuneration supplements awarded to biomass valorization centers dated from 2019 and was amended now by the Government of LuÃs Montenegro (PSD/CDS-PP) with the aim of encouraging plants to contribute to fire prevention.
In the press release explaining the details of the new calculation formula, the Ministry of Environment recalls that the remunerations rest on two components – “a market premium and a premium for the integrated management of rural fires and forest protection, defined in euros per megawatt-hour (€/MWh) of electricity injected into the Public Service Electrical Grid (RESP).”
The regime now defined “will assign a greater weight to the contribution of each plant in the integrated management of rural fires,” the ministry says.
“The plants will also have their remuneration indexed to the burned area in their region of influence, for a reference period of up to three years, which aims to avoid penalties for small fires, or undue benefits to those who, for example, had their territory devastated by flames in the previous year,” explains.
In the ordinance, the rules for calculating the market premium, positive or negative, that is due to the biomass plant for the energy produced and injected into the RESP are updated, and those for the “premium for the contribution given by the plant to the defense against fires and the preservation of the forest,” which is “determined according to the percentage of burned area, properly identified in the cartographic register of burned areas,” accumulated in the municipality or municipalities affected.
According to the Ministry led by Maria da Graça Carvalho, “by positively highlighting the contribution of biomass plants to fire prevention, conditions are created for valuing the fixed tariff according to the active role that these biomass plants have in forest management.”
In the ordinance, the Government states that, before making this change, it consulted the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG) and the Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE).
For the Ministry of Environment, “the new legislation, more than the electricity produced and injected into the RESP, aims to incentivize the fundamental role that these same plants can have in the planning and management of the forest, with the fundamental objective of defending and preserving it from rural fires,” the press release today states.
“By using forest residues, biomass plants assume a fundamental role in protecting and defending the forest from rural fires,” the ministry also emphasizes.
