RIGA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- A number of inquiries are being launched in Latvia after a TV program last Sunday accused several energy companies of obtaining green energy licenses by cheating in tests.
If undetected, the alleged fraud could cost tens of millions of euros to consumers over the next decade, Latvia's TV3 commercial television claimed.
According to the TV3 report, after failing to finish work on their renewable energy systems on time, seven operators of combined heat and power plants still managed to keep their green energy licenses by fraudulently presenting energy produced by portable generators as green energy during tests conducted by Latvia's power grid operator Sadales Tikls.
If these companies are allowed to go ahead with their business and sell electric power as green energy, the price of which is five times higher than that of the standard energy, consumers may overpay up to 100 million euros (118 million U.S. dollars)over the next decade.
The companies, which in 2012 received the Latvian Economics Ministry's permission to build their green power plants, were supposed to finish their projects by this fall. If the project is completed and the power plant is operational, the owner can sell electric power generated at the plant for the increased price, with corporate consumers and households paying the surcharge.
TV3 journalists found, however, that works on many of these green power plants were still far from finished and at some construction sites they had not even begun.
Responding to the TV report, Latvian Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens on Monday ordered the ministry's supervisory group to urgently inspect the heat and power plants mentioned in the program, the minister's spokeswoman Agita Baltbarde said.
The ministry's officials, accompanied by green energy experts, will be visiting the power plants to make sure they operate in accordance with their licenses.
The minister has also ordered an internal probe in Sadales Tikls power grid operator which is in charge of licensing green energy producers.
The spokeswoman said that the minister would also ask the law enforcement authorities to investigate Rigas Energija company, the operator of a large heat and power plant in the Latvian capital Riga, for alleged obtaining its green energy license through fraud.
