S.L. 545.43 ст. 2 Interpretation. 

(1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Act" means the Regulator for Energy and Water

Services Act;

"advanced biofuels" means biofuels which are produced from the feedstock listed in Part A of the Fourth Schedule;

"ambient energy" means naturally occurring thermal energy and energy accumulated in the environment with constrained boundaries, which can be stored in the ambient air, excluding in exhaust air, or in surface or sewage water;

"bidding zone" means a bidding zone as defined in point

(65) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the internal market for electricity (recast);

"bi-directional recharging" means bi-directional recharging as defined in point (11) of Article 2 of Regulation

(EU) 2023/1804 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure, and repealing Directive 2014/94/EU;

"biofuels" means liquid fuel for transport produced from biomass;

"biogas" means gaseous fuels produced from biomass;

"bioliquids" means liquid fuel for energy purposes other than for transport, including electricity and heating and cooling, produced from biomass;

"biomass" means the biodegradable fraction of products, waste and residues from biological origin from agriculture, including vegetal and animal substances, from forestry and related industries, including fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the biodegradable fraction of waste, including industrial and municipal waste of biological origin;

"biomass fuels" means gaseous and solid fuels produced from biomass;

"Building and Construction Authority" means the

Authority established by article 5 of the Building and Construction Authority Act;

"co-located energy storage" means an energy storage facility combined with a facility producing renewable energy and connected to the same grid access point;

"Directive" means Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (recast);

"Directive (EU) 2019/944" means Directive (EU) 2019/ 944 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on common rules for the internal market for electricity and amending Directive 2012/27/EU (recast);

"distribution system operator" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Electricity Regulations with respect to electricity and with respect to natural gas it shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Natural Gas Market

Regulations for natural gas;

"district heating" or "district cooling" means the distribution of thermal energy in the form of steam, hot water or chilled liquids, from central or decentralised sources of production through a network to multiple buildings or sites, for the use of space or process heating or cooling;

"domestic battery" means a stand-alone rechargeable battery of rated capacity greater than 2 kwh, which is suitable for installation and use in a domestic environment;

"efficient district heating and cooling" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Energy Efficiency

Regulations; SOURCES

"electricity markets" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Electricity Regulations;

"electric vehicle battery" means an electric vehicle battery as defined in point (14) of Article 3(1) of Regulation

(EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 concerning batteries and waste batteries, amending Directive 2008/98/EC and Regulation (EU) 2019/ 1020 and repealing Directive 2006/66/EC;

"energy efficiency first principle" means energy efficiency first as defined in point (18) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action, amending Regulations (EC) No 663/2009 and (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Directives 94/22/EC, 98/70/EC, 2009/31/EC, 2009/73/EC, 2010/31/EU, 2012/27/EU and 2013/ 30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Directives 2009/119/EC and (EU) 2015/652 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

"energy from renewable sources" or "renewable energy" means energy from renewable non-fossil sources, namely wind, solar (solar thermal and solar photovoltaic) and geothermal energy, osmotic energy, ambient energy, tide, wave and other ocean energy, hydropower, biomass, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas, and biogas;

"energy performance certificate (EPC)" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations;

"European Commission" or "Commission" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Treaty;

"European Union (EU)" or "Union" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Treaty;

"financial instrument" means a financial instrument as defined in point (3) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast);

"food and feed crops" means starch-rich crops, sugar crops or oil crops produced on agricultural land as a main crop excluding residues, waste or ligno-cellulosic material and intermediate crops, such as catch crops and cover crops, provided that the use of such intermediate crops does not trigger demand for additional land;

"fuel supplier" means an entity supplying fuel to the market that is responsible for passing fuel through an excise duty point or, in the case of electricity or where no excise is due or where duly justified, any other relevant entity so designated;

"geothermal energy" means energy stored in the form of heat beneath the surface of solid earth;

"green certificate" means a tradeable commodity representing the environmental attributes of a specific quantity of energy produced from renewable energy sources issued upon compliance with environmental quality and sustainability criteria;

"gross final consumption of energy" means the energy commodities delivered for energy purposes to industry, transport, households, services including public services, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the consumption of electricity and heat by the energy branch for electricity and heat production, and losses of electricity and heat in distribution and transmission;

"guarantee of origin" means an electronic document issued by the Regulator which has the sole function of providing evidence to a final customer that a given share or quantity of electricity was produced from high-efficiency cogeneration or that a given share or quantity of energy was produced from renewable energy source;

"high-efficiency cogeneration" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Energy Efficiency Regulations;

"industrial battery" means an industrial battery as defined in point (13) of Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542;

"industrial grade roundwood" means saw logs, veneer logs, round or split pulpwood, as well as all other roundwood that is suitable for industrial purposes, excluding roundwood the characteristics of which, such as species, dimensions, rectitude and node density, make it unsuitable for industrial use as may be defined and duly justified according to the relevant forest and market conditions;

"industry" means undertakings and products that fall under sections B, C, and F and under division (63) of section J of the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE REV.2), as set out in Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the SOURCES

European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) no 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains;

"innovative renewable energy technology" means renewable energy generation technology that improves, in at least one way, comparable state-of-the-art renewable energy technology, or that renders exploitable renewable energy technology that is not fully commercialised or that involves a clear degree of risk;

"jointly acting renewables self-consumers" means a group of at least two (2) jointly acting renewables self-consumers who are located in the same building or multi-apartment block;

"ligno-cellulosic material" means material composed of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose, such as biomass sourced from forests, woody energy crops and forest-based industries' residues and wastes;

"low indirect land-use change-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels" means biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels, the feedstock of which was produced within schemes which avoid displacement effects of food and feed-crop based biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels through improved agricultural practices as well as through the cultivation of crops on areas which were previously not used for cultivation of crops, and which were produced in accordance with the sustainability criteria for biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels laid down in regulation 3 of the Biofuels, Bioliquids and

Biomass Fuels (Sustainability Criteria) Regulations;

"market participant" means a market participant as defined in point (25) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the internal market for electricity;

"Member State" means a state which is a member of the European Union;

"Member State of origin" or "country of origin" means a state from which electricity produced from renewable energy sources is transferred or exported to another Member State or a third country;

"Member State of destination" or "country of destination" means a Member State or country which receives or to which electricity produced from renewable energy sources is transferred or exported from the country of origin;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for energy, provided that for the purposes of those provisions in these regulations which regulate planning matters, it shall mean the Minister responsible for energy in consultation with the Minister responsible for the Planning Authority;

"National Energy and Climate Plan" means the plan referred to in article 7 of the Climate Action Act;

"non-energy purpose" means the use of fuels as raw materials in an industrial process, rather than to produce energy;

"non-food cellulosic material" means feedstock mainly composed of cellulose and hemicellulose, and having a lower lignin content than ligno-cellulosic material, including food and feed crop residues, such as straw, stover, husks and shells; grassy energy crops with a low starch content, such as ryegrass, switchgrass, miscanthus, giant cane; cover crops before and after main crops; ley crops; industrial residues, including from food and feed crops after vegetal oils, sugars, starches and protein have been extracted; and material from biowaste, where ley and cover crops are understood to be temporary, short-term sown pastures comprising grass-legume mixture with a low starch content to obtain fodder for livestock and improve soil fertility for obtaining higher yields of arable main crops;

"normal power recharging point" means a normal power recharging point as defined in point (37) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure, and repealing Directive 2014/ 94/EU;

"osmotic energy" means energy created from the difference in salt concentration between two fluids, such as fresh water and salt water;

"peer-to-peer trading of renewable energy" means the sale of renewable energy between market participants by means of a contract with pre-determined conditions governing the automated execution and settlement of the transaction, either directly between market participants or indirectly through a certified third-party market participant, such as an aggregator:

Provided that the right to conduct peer-to-peer trading shall be without prejudice to the rights and obligations SOURCES

of the parties involved as final customers, producers, suppliers or aggregators;

"Planning Authority" means the Authority established by the Development Planning Act;

"power set point" means the dynamic information held in a battery’s management system prescribing the electric power settings at which the battery should optimally operate during a recharging or discharging operation, so that its state of health and operational use are optimised;

"recharging point" means a recharging point as defined in point (48) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure, and repealing Directive 2014/94/EU;

"recycled carbon fuels" means liquid and gaseous fuels that are produced from liquid or solid waste streams of non-

renewable origin which are not suitable for material recovery in accordance with regulation 4A of the Waste Regulations, or from waste processing gas and exhaust gas of non-renewable origin which are produced as an unavoidable and unintentional consequence of the production process in industrial installations;

"Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008" means Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on energy statistics;

"Regulation (EU) 2018/1999" means Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action, amending Regulations (EC) No 663/2009 and

(EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Directives 94/22/EC, 98/70/EC, 2009/31/EC, 2009/73/ EC, 2010/31/EU, 2012/27/EU and 2013/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Directives 2009/119/EC and (EU) 2015/652 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

"Regulation (EU) 2019/943" means Regulation (EU) 2019/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the internal market for electricity (recast);

"Regulation (EU) 2023/1804" means Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure, and repealing Directive 2014/94/EU; "Regulator" means the Regulator for Energy and Water Services established by the Act;

"relevant authority" means any authority or license or permit-issuing or administrative body responsible for the issuing of authorisations, licenses or permits, or responsible for the formulation and publication of general binding rules, insofar as these authorisations, licences, permits or rules may directly impact, or relate to any activity which may impact the achievement of the objectives laid down by these regulations:

Provided that for the purpose of Part V, the responsible relevant permitting authorities shall include but not be limited to:

(a) the Planning Authority established in accordance with article 5 of the Development Planning Act, which shall be responsible to fulfil its obligations under the said Act; and

(b) the Regulator for Energy and Water

Services established in accordance with article 3 of the

Regulator for Energy and Water Services Act, which shall be responsible to fulfil its obligations under the said Act;

"renewable energy community" means a legal entity:

(a) which, in accordance with the applicable law, is based on an open and voluntary participation, is autonomous, and is effectively controlled by shareholders or members that are located in the proximity of the renewable energy projects that are owned and developed by the said legal entity;

(b) the shareholders or members of which are natural persons, SME’s or local authorities, including municipalities; and

(c) the primary purpose of which is to provide environmental, economic or social community benefits for its shareholders or members or for the local areas where it operates, rather than financial profits;

"renewable energy obligation" means a national support scheme requiring energy producers to include a given share of energy from renewable sources in their production, requiring energy suppliers to include a given share of energy from renewable sources in their supply, or requiring energy consumers to include a given share of energy from renewable SOURCES

sources in their consumption, including schemes under which such requirements may be fulfilled by using green certificates;

"renewable energy purchase agreement" means a contract under which a natural or legal person agrees to purchase renewable energy directly from a producer, which encompasses, but is not limited to, renewables power purchase agreements and renewables heating and cooling purchase agreements;

"renewable fuels" means biofuels, bioliquids, biomass fuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin;

"renewable fuels of non-biological origin" means liquid and gaseous fuels the energy content of which is derived from renewable sources other than biomass;

"renewables acceleration area" means a specific location or area, whether on land, sea or inland waters, which is designated as particularly suitable for the installation of renewable energy plants;

"renewables power purchase agreement" means a contract under which a natural or legal person agrees to purchase renewable electricity directly from an electricity producer;

"renewables self-consumer" means a final customer operating within its premises located within confined boundaries who generates renewable electricity for its own consumption, and who may store or sell self-generated renewable electricity, provided that, for a non-household renewables self-consumer, such activities do not constitute its primary commercial or professional activity;

"repowering" means renewing power plants that produce renewable energy, including the full or partial replacement of installations or operation systems and equipment for the purposes of replacing capacity or increasing the efficiency or capacity of the installation;

"residue" means a substance that is not the end product that a production process directly seeks to produce; it is not a primary aim of the production process and the process has not been deliberately modified to produce it;

"scheduled buildings" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Development Planning Act;

"SME" means a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise as defined in Article 2 of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC;

"smart metering system" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Electricity Regulations;

"smart recharging" means a recharging operation in which the intensity of electricity delivered to the battery is adjusted dynamically, on the basis of information received through electronic communication;

"solar-electric vehicle" means a motor vehicle equipped with a powertrain containing only non-peripheral electric machines as energy converter, with an electric rechargeable energy storage system which can be recharged externally, and with vehicle-integrated photovoltaic panels;

"solar energy equipment" means equipment that converts energy from the sun into thermal or electrical energy, in particular solar thermal and solar photovoltaic equipment;

"state of charge" means state of charge as defined in point (27) of Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542;

"state of health" means state of health as defined in point

(28) of Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542;

"starch-rich crops" means crops comprising mainly cereals, regardless of whether the grains alone or the whole plant, such as in the case of green maize, are used; tubers and root crops, such as potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes, cassava and yams; and corm crops, such as taro and cocoyam;

"Strategic Plan for Environment and Development"

means the plan referred to in article 51 of the Environment and Development Planning Act;

"support scheme" means any instrument, scheme or mechanism applied by the Minister or by a group of Member States which includes Malta, that promotes the use of energy from renewable sources by reducing the cost of such energy, increasing the price at which it can be sold, or increasing, by means of a renewable energy obligation or otherwise, the volume of such energy purchased, including but not restricted to, investment aid, tax exemptions or reductions, tax refunds, renewable energy obligation support schemes including those using green certificates, and direct price support schemes including feed-in tariffs and sliding or fixed premium payments; SOURCES

"system efficiency" means the selection of energy-efficient solutions where they also enable a cost-effective decarbonisation pathway, additional flexibility and the efficient use of resources;

"third country" means a country which is not a member of the European Union and which receives or to which electricity produced from renewable energy sources is transferred or exported from the country of origin;

"Treaty" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the European Union Act;

"TFEU" means the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;

"Union database" means the database established by the Commission to enable the tracing of liquid and gaseous renewable fuels and recycled carbon fuels;

"waste" means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard, excluding those substances that have been intentionally modified or contaminated in order to meet this definition;

"waste heat and cold" means unavoidable heat or cold generated as a by-product of industrial or power generation installations, or in the tertiary sector, which would be dissipated unused in air or water without access to a district heating or cooling system, where a cogeneration process has been used or will be used or where cogeneration is not feasible.

(2) For the purposes of these regulations, the relevant definitions in the Electricity Regulations shall apply.

(3) Unless the context otherwise requires, words and phrases used in these regulations which are not defined in these regulations shall have the same meaning as assigned to them in the Act.