House of Representatives Adopts by Unanimity of Votes Government Bill 82.21 on Self-Production of Electricity

The House of Representatives adopted, on Tuesday, December 20, 2022, by unanimity of votes, Government Bill 82.21 on the self-production of electricity. The adoption occurred during a legislative plenary sitting chaired by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami, and attended by the Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Ms. Leila Benali. 

The legislative text was elaborated according to the strategic energy orientations, mainly the compliance with the directives of the new development model on advancing decentralized production of electricity, the amelioration of the competitiveness of the electricity sector, and the simplification of administrative measures and procedures. 

The adoption of the Bill comes as part of the efforts to address the challenges of self-production, particularly the existing legal vacuum, the existence of unregulated self-production plants, and the impossibility to self-produce electricity outside the grid of the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water. 

Besides, Government Bill 82.21 aims to regulate the activity of self-production of electricity for self-consumption, regardless of the source of production, the nature of the grid, the level of voltage, or the capacity of the plant used. The Bill also aims to ensure the safety and security of the national electricity grid and compliance with the principles of transparency and non-discrimination between different stakeholders. 

Moreover, the Bill brought updates consisting mainly of allowing physical and legal persons subjects to common law and private law to self-produce electricity while stipulating some exceptions concerning the private grid managers and developers under the Law on renewable energies and contractual electricity production. The Bill also stipulates the provision of self-production plants with smart meters to measure the amount of injected and withdrawn energy and the possibility of selling the excess produce to the managers of electricity grids after it was exclusive to the Office grid. 

The Bill would create economic dynamism with a positive impact on the job market of the Kingdom. It would also form a new promising framework and opportunity to encourage the private sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, to invest further in energy production, to better satisfy their needs for electricity under competitive prices, and to better control electricity consumption.